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IN AND AROUND 



THE OLD 



'm 



ouis Cathedral 



OF NEW ORLEANS 



Rev. C. M. Chambon 



New Orleans 

P/iilippe's Printery, Exchange Place 

1908 



LIBRARY of CONGKESS 
Two Copies Received 

NOV 6 1908 

Copyrlgnt entry 
CLASS ck. XXc. No, 



COPYRIGHT, 1908 

BY C. M. CHAMBON 

NEW ORLKANS 



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TO THE MEMORY 

OF THE 

MISSIONARIES AND COLONISTS 

WHOSE 

FAITH AND GALLANTRY 

MADE OF 

LOUISIANA A LAND OF RELIGION AND ROMANCE 

THIS ESSAY IS 

HUMBLY INSCRIBED 



INTRODUCTION. 



This publication does not lay claim to originality. 
It has been composed with the help of many sympa- 
thizers, and some of its pages are mere translations 
of old documents or quotations from periodicals and 
local publications. 

The author wrote with the sacred love of the 
past, but never failed to aim to the verity of facts, 
even when he found it necessary to differ from noted 
historians whose merits are beyond question. The 
best tribute one could ever confer ou the Mother 
Church of Louisiana is to present its history clothed 
in the divine garb of truth. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY: 

Francois XaYier Martin : 

The History of Loixisiaua from the Earliest Period. New 
Orleans, 1882. 

Charles Gayarr^ : 

History of Louisiana. New Orleans, 1903. 

Alc^e Fortier : 

A History of Louisiana. Paris and New York, 1904. 

John Giluiary Shea : 

History of the Catholic Church in the United States. New 

York, 1892. 
The Hierarchy of the Catholic Church in the United 

States. New York, 1886. 
The Defenders of Our Faith. New York, 1892. 

Camille de Rochemonteix : 

Les J68uite8 et la Nouvelle France an 18e Siecle. Paris, 
1906. 



Henry C. Castellauos: 

New Orleaus As It AVas. New Orleans, 1905. 

A Member of the Order of Mercy : 

Essays Educational and Historic. NeAv York, 1899. 

L. J. Loeweustein : 

History of the St. Louis Cathedral of New Orleans. 1882. 

James M. Augustin : 

Sketch of the Catholic Church in Louisiana. New Orleans, 

1893. 
Transfer of Louisiana from France to the United States. 

New Orleans, 1904. 

Henry Rightor : 

Standard History of New Orleaus. Chicago, 1900. 

Howard Memorial Library: 

Books and Pamphlets on Church History. 

Manuscript Authorities: 

Archives of the City Hall of New Orleans. 

Archives of the Saint Louis Cathedral of New Orleans. 

Centeuaire du Pere Autoine. New Orleans, 1885. 



^•f 



CONTENTS. 



PART I — HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 

chapter i. 

The Saint Louis Parish Church of New Orleans and 

THE Capuchin Fathers of France and 

Spain in Louisiana. 

First Religious Structures in New Orleans — Orgauizatiou 
of the Catholic Church iu Louisiana — The Capuchin 
Fathers of Champagne — New Orleans and Its People 
in Early Colonial Days — The Jesuit War — The Capu- 
chin Quarrel — Truth Better Than Legend — The End 
of an Epoch ......... 15 

chapter II. 

Don Andres Almonester y Roxas. 
A Nohle Benefactor — A Solemn Dedication — The Troubles 

of a Generous Man — "Sic Transit Gloria Mundi." . 37 

chapter III. 

Pere Antoine. 

A Much Debated Character — The Tribunal of the Holy In- 
quisition iu Louisiana — Humility and Charity of P^re 
Antoine — A Pompous Funeral 47 



PART II — THE SAINT LOUIS CATHEDRAL. 

chapter i. 

In Coming Down a Century. 63 

chapter II. 

A "Te Deum" of Victory. 
General Jackson Welcomed at the Cathedral's Threshold by 

Abb^ Louis Guillaume Dubourg 64 

chapter III. 

The Cathedral of Our Days. 
The Cathedral Repaired, Decorated and Furnished . . 71 



— 10 — 

chapter iv. 

For Visitors' Sake. 

Cosmopolitau Character of a Congregation — The Swiss 
Guard — A Glimpse of the Altars, Paintings p.nd Stained 
Glass Windows — The Abode of Illustrious Dead . . 75 

CHAPTER V. 

The CATHEDitAL Archives. 
How the Records Were Handed Down — Oldest Entries — 
Terrible Stories in a Few Lines Side Lights on Civil 
and Religious Life of Old 91 

PART III — AROUND THE CATHEDRAL. 

chapter i. 

The Old St. Louis Cemetery. 

Successive Locations of the Earliest Cemetery of New Or- 
leans — Inscriptions of Historical Interest — The For- 
gotten Corner — Lessons on Life Learned from the 
Dead 107 

chapter h. 

St. Anthony Mortuary Chapel. 

The Origin of a Shrine — The Last Years of a Soldier Priest 
— The St. Anthony Chapel Becomes an Italian Parish 
Church 123 

chapter III. 

The Old Ursuline Convent (Archbishopric). 
Pioneers of Female Education in North America — Memo- 
rable Journey of the Ursuline Nuns — A Triumphal Pag- 
eant — A Mute Witness of the Past .... 133 



CENTENNIAL GLORIES. 

A Century of Episcopacy 153 

"Mutantur Imperia, Ecclesia Durat" . . . 165 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



His Grace. Most Rev. James H. Blenk (frontispiece) 
Father Dagobert de Lougiiy ..... 

The Saiut Louis Cathedral of New Orleans in 1794 
Don Andres Almonester y Roxas .... 

Right Rev. Penalver y Cardenas 

Fac Simile of the Page Recording the First Sale of 

Pews of the Saint Louis Cathedral 
Pere Autoiue de Sedella ...... 

The Cathedral Viewed from the River about 1840 

Abb6 Guillaume V. Dubourg 

Very Rev. H. C. Mignot .... 

A Cosmopolitan Group 

The Swiss Guard in Full Regalia 

Altar of Our Lady of Lourdes 

Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes . 

Interior of the Cathedral .... 

The Cathedral Archives and Their Custodian 

Side View of the Old St. Louis Cemetery 

Charles Gayarr6 and Etieune de Bora's Tomb 

The Neglected Corner 

A Forlorn Alley 

St. Anthony Chapel in 1840 .... 

Father Turgis 

The Landing of the Ursuline Nuns 
The Present Ursuline Convent 
The Old Ursuline Convent (Archbishopric) 
His Grace, Most Rev. Francis Janssens 

Very Rev. H. Hage 

A Memorable Procession 

Rev. de la Morini^re 

Right Rev. Mousignore J. M. Laval, V. G. . 
His Excellence, Most Rev. Louis P. Chapelle 



the 



28 
38 
41 
43 

45 

51 

65 

67 

73 

77 

79 

83 

85 

87 

93 

113 

115 

117 

119 

125 

129 

137 

145 

149 

155 

158 

167 

169 

171 

175 



PART I. 



HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE SAINT LOUIS PARISH CHURCH OF NEW ORLEANS 

AND THE CAPUCHIN FATHERS OF FRANCE 

AND SPAIN IN LOUISIANA. 



First Religious Structukes of New Orleans — Organiza- 
tion OF THE Catholic Church in Louisiana — The 
Capuchin Fathers of Champagne — New Orleans 
AND Its People in Early Colonial Days — The 
Jesuit War — The Capuchin Quarrel — Truth Bet- 
ter Than Legend — Thic End of an Epoch. 



It is impossible not to feel the peaceful repose, 
the strange stillness which pervades the atmosphere 
of the Saint Louis Cathedral: romance and religion 
blend there more closely than at any other spot of 
this quaint old city. But few, if any, of the vast 
throngs that daily cross its threshold have ever given 
a thought to its predecessor, an humble church of 
old wherein, for more than sixty years, Capuchin 
Fathers toiled and ministered to the settlers and 
colonists of the earlier New Orleans. 

This Saint Louis Parish Church, as it was called, 
has long since disappeared, its priests are dead and 
forgotten, and nothing remains to tell their story 
but a few documents, almost all incomplete, dis- 
orderly, and some partly altered by legend. 

Nevertheless, each and every one of them is a 
fragment of history, and all deserved to be gathered 



le- 



as to give not only a mere accnnmlation of facts, 
but also the true significance of their compilation. 



Although the Saint Louis Parish Church traces 
its origin to the very beginning of the foundation 
of New Orleans, it was not the first religious edifice 
ever erected in this city. According to the his- 
torian, Charlevoix, the Saint Louis Parish Church 
was preceded by another church and two temporary 
shelters devoted to religious purposes. 

" I have at last arrived in this famous city called 
La Nouvelle-Orleans,writes Charlevoix to the Duchess 
of Lesdiguieres on January 10, 1722 * * * about 
a hundred huts placed here and there, a large store 
of wood, one or three houses and half of a miserable 
store comprise the town; the humblest village in 
France can boast of better homes. It was in this little 
store the Lord was first worshipped, but hardly had He 
been placed therein, when they had Him removed to 
place Him under a tent." To our eyes, an utter disre- 
gard of religion, but little else could be expected from 
the settlers who first cleared the land and built some 
hundred huts along the river. They were not May 
Flower Pilgrims, but mostly traders, soldiers and 
adventurers, whose religious feelings had been un- 
doubtedly dulled by their life of travel and hardships. 

However, shortly after Charlevoix's visit, and 
possibly at his own instigation, something more 
decent than a tent was offered to the Lord as a house 
of worship. This was a small stucco church, the 
first regular church ever built in New Orleans. 
Lovenstein, in his history of the Saint Louis Cathedral, 



— 17 — 

asserts that this church had been dedicated to Saint 
Ignatius, its rector being- a Capuchin father named 
Matthias 5 but of this we find no record whatsoever. 
All we know of this first parish church of New Or- 
leans is its destruction by a terrible hurricane which 
occurred on the 11th of September, 1723. 

Again New Orleans was without a place of wor- 
ship, and the prospects of the Church in this new 
country would have been hopeless if a religious organi- 
zation had not been already planned and fostered for 
Louisiana. 



Catholicism had penetrated into Louisiana with 
civilization. De Soto, La Salle, Bienville, in all 
their expeditions, were accompanied by missionaries. 
Priests from Canada came down the ^Mississippi with 
the traders and the soldiers to christianize the 
Southern tribes and minister to the first settlers 
scattered along the Gulf and the lower banks of the 
" Great River." 

But these missionaries were almost without re- 
sources, completely isolated, and thus their ministry 
could not be progressive or fruitful ; a more syste- 
matic as well as a broader ecclesiastical government 
was deemed imperative. 

Reports had reached Bishop Saint Vallier of 
Quebec about the laxity of religion and utter dis- 
regard of moral law then prevailing among the 
colonists of Louisiana. These reports, together with 
other statements from authentic sources about the 
spiritual destitution of the colony, induced the 
Western Company's Commissioners to come to a 



— 18 — 

better fulfilment of the duties they had shouldered 
in obtaining the monopoly of trade in Louisiana. 
"As we regard particularly the glory of God, reads 
the 53rd clause of the " Lettres Patentes,' we desire 
the Inhabitants, Indians, Il^egroes, to be taught the 
true religion. The said Company shall be compelled 
to build, at its expense, churches at the place where 
it forms settlements, as also to maintain the required 
number of approved ecclesiastics, either with the 
rank of parish i)riests, or such men as shall be suitable 
to preach the Holy Gospel, i^erform divine service 
and administer the sacraments; all to be under the 
authority of the Bishop of Quebec, the said colony 
remaining in his diocese as heretofore, and the parish 
priests and other ecclesiastics which the Company 
shall maintain there, being at his nomination and 
under his patronage." 

With the consent of the Bishop of Quebec, the 
Commissioners of the Council of the Western Company 
issued an ordinance, May 16, 1722, dividing Louis- 
iana into three ecclesiastical sections. North of the 
Ohio was intrusted to the Society of Jesus and the 
priests of the Foreigu Missions of Quebec and Paris. 

The district between the Mississippi and the Rio 
Perdito, as also the country north of the Ohio, was 
tendered to the Discalced Carmelite Fathers, with 
their headquarters in Mobile. The French and Indian 
settlements of the Lower ^Mississippi were assigned 
to the Capuchin Fathers of the Province of Cham- 
pagne, France. 

I^ot long after, this division was greatly altered. 
The Carmelites were recalled and their district given 
over to the Capuchins. But they, not having the 



— 19 — 

requisite number of priests, forced the Western 
Company to intrust tlie religious welfare of all the 
Indian tribes to the Jesuit Fathers. Thus, Louisiana 
was finally divided between the Capuchins and the 
Jesuits : the former in charge of the colonisis and 
the latter in charge of the Indians. Both the su- 
periors of these orders were vicar-generals of the 
Bishop of Quebec, each in his own jurisdiction. 



It is no wonder that we find the Jesuits among 
the pioneers of religion in Louisiana. They are and 
have been nearly everywhere where Christianity 
could be propagated. But the presence of the 
Capuchins, under these Southern skies, astonishes 
us somewhat. In fact, their coming into this country 
originated from a mere coincidence. When the Com- 
missioners of the Western Company applied for mis- 
sionaries, the spiritual welfare of the colony was 
intrusted to Louis Francis Duplessis de Mornay, 
Bishop "in partibus " of Eumenia and Coadjutor to 
the Bishop of Quebec. 

This prelate, who had been a Capuchin himself, 
resided in Paris, and from there supervised and 
directed the missionaries of the ])rovince. When 
the Western Company applied to him in 1717 for 
missionaries to be seut in Louisiana, Bishop de 
IMornay tendered the offer to the Capuchin Order, 
from which he came. They accepted gratefully and re- 
ceived the King's approval on April of the same year. 

However, their earliest appearance in their new 
field of labor is not chronicled before 1720, three years 
after their assignment. Father Jean Matthieu de 



— 20 — 

Saiute Anne is the first whose name has been recorded 
in this country. He signs himself in the register of 
the parish of New Orleans on the 22d of October, 
1720, as '^ Jean Matthieii de Sainte Anne, Pretre Mis- 
sionnaire et Cure du Vieux Biloxi." Further on, on 
the 18th of January, 1721, he again signs himself as 
" Vicaire Apostolique et Cure de La Mobile." 

In 1722 Father Bruno de Langres sailed from 
France with several of his brethren. Father Kaphael 
de Luxembourg, Superior of the Capuchin Missions 
in Louisiana, arrived the following spring, 1723, and 
took charge of the Parish Church of New Orleans. 

A register in the Saint Louis Cathedral archives 
shows his signature August 18th, 1723, as "F. 
Eaphael de Luxembourg, Superieur de la Mission et 
Cure de I'l^glise paroissiale." 

A little later, January, 1721, he adds the title of 
Vicar-General, which he had received from the Bishop 
of Quebec. 

The first Capuchins who came to Louisiana bad 
much to contend with upon their arrival in New Or- 
leans. Their congregation was scattered over a large 
area, and, added to their poverty, there was a total 
ignorance of religion. Colonists were even imbued 
with the skepticism and naturalism, which at that 
time were already undermining the French nation. 

Father Raphael tells us when he landed in New 
Orleans he could hardly secure a room for himself 
and his brethren to occupy, and much less one to 
convert into a chapel, for the population was indiffer- 
ent to all that savored of the church. On Sundays, 
a little over thirty persons attended mass. Un- 
daunted, the Capuchin Fathers toiled on and at last 



— 21 — 

were rewarded by seeing" dormaut hearts pulsate 
once more for their religion. The garb of these 
monks became a familiar sight and the ceremonies of 
the Church brought the colonists sweet recollections 
of their mother country. 

Less than a couple of years following his arrival, 
Father Raphael was gladdened by the erection of a 
church built to replace the first one i^rematurely de- 
stroyed by the hurricane of September, 1723. It was 
on a larger scale than the former, built of brick 
and dedicated to Saint Louis, in honor of Louis the 
Fifteenth, then King of France. 

Thus, after years of hardships and trials, the 
Capuchins were comparatively established in a stately 
manner, and their '^ Saint Louis Parish Church " was 
destined to become, for a period of sixty years and 
more, the center of the colonial life in New Orleans. 



When Xew Orleans completed its first decade of 
existence, the Saint Louis Parish Church was the 
only redeeming feature of the city. Although it was 
comj^aratively a small and poorly decorated church, 
its spire towered over the other buildings with some- 
what of majesty. The Capuchins' residence stood at 
its left, the Guard House at its right. In front of 
its porch, the " Place d'Armes" infolded a square of 
green, through which two diagonal alleys led to the 
harbor. The homes of the colonial officials and com- 
mercial potentates were mostly situated on the water 
front or along Chartres street. The " Place d'Armes " 
and its surroundiugs were then the fashionable 
quarters. 



As for tlie rest, it was forlorn coiifiusion, and, 
tliougb the plan of the city showed a large parallel- 
ogram of five thousand feet of river front by a 
depth of eighteen hundred, yet, the greatest part of 
it was rather disorderly and squalid, the ground 
being" occupied but by a few scattered log cabins, 
thatched with cypress, isolated from each other by 
willow brakes, sloughs, bristling with dwarf palmet- 
toes and reedy ponds swarming- with reptiles. JSTo 
one yet had built beyond J)aui)hine street, nor below 
the Hospital— now the corner of Chartres and Hos- 
pital streets — nor above Bienville, except the Gover- 
nor, whose i)alace stood at the extreme upper corner 
of the town — now Customhouse and Decatur streets. 

Such was New Orleans when it completed its 
first decade of existence. If we deprive the vision 
of its halo, the New Orleans of 1728 was nothing 
more than a poor village, hastily built between a 
formidable river and dismal swamps. Nevertheless 
it was New Orleans, and beyond the far horizon, 
the wise could foresee its future glory already dawn- 
ing. In his letter to the Duchess of Lesdiguieres, 
Charlevoix wrote these prophetic words : '' My hopes, 
I think, are well founded that this wild and desert 
place, which the reeds and trees still cover almost 
entirely, will be one day, and that day not far distant, 
a city of opulence, and the metropolis of a great and 
rich colony." 

We cannot, indeed, refrain from wonder and ad- 
miration when we think of the little village of 1728, 
and compare it to the New Orleans of to-day, gra- 
ciously bending its mighty crescent along the restless 
■waters of the Mississippi. 



— 23 — 

Although Xew Orleans by no means in its be- 
ginnings suggested the splendors of Paris, there was 
no lack of interest in its social life. There was a 
Governor with a military staff ; and the army ofQcers, 
with their manners once displayed at the Court of 
Versailles, lent to the colonial life an air of gallantry 
and grandeur. As in France, in this time, the Gov- 
ernment was in close touch with the Church : the 
Governor used to call on the good Capuchin Fathers 
and his wife visited the Ursuline Ladies who had 
come to take charge of the hospital and give the 
daughters of the colonists the thorough education im- 
parted in French convents. 

But besides the manners and usages imported 
from the mother country, there were also quaint 
customs which gave to the Louisiana of colonial 
days characteristics so much talked of in romance 
and so little known in history. 

There has been lately discovered, in the archives 
of the Saint Louis Cathedral, a document partially 
illustrating this subject. It refers to a meeting held 
by the prominent citizens of the city at which were 
discussed the most feasible ways and means of rais- 
ing the necessary funds for the erection of a pres- 
bytery. 

The following extract is translated from the 
original: ''This second day of November, 1738, the 
inhabitants of the colony assembled at the Hotel of 
the Intendauce, upon the requisition of Father Mat- 
thias, Vicar-General to the Bishop of Quebec, in 
presence of Mr. de Bienville, Governor of the pro- 
vince of Louisiana, and Mr. Salmon, Commissary 
of the Navy and First Justice of the Superior Coun- 



— 24 — 

cil. The assembly had been amiouuced yesterday in 
the parish church of this city, and the bells were 
rung to call the meeting- to-day." Then follow the 
deliberations "which could not be put into execution 
on account— says a later report — of a war and gen- 
eral famine, which broke out in the colony." In 1744 
this same project was revived and the following reso- 
lutions adopted : "A tax of fifty cents will be im- 
jiosed upon all the inhabitants of the parish for each 
and every head of negroes. In addition to this the in- 
habitants have agreed upon a personal tax propor- 
tioned to the amount of real estate owned by them, 
said amount to be decided by a board composed of 
ten of the most prominent citizens." 

Through the generosity of the parishioners the 
presbytery was erected. There dwelt the parish 
priest, 

Father Raphael de Luxembourg, with his assistant, 

Father Hyacinthe, and the school master, 

Father Cecil. 

It also served as a "pied-a-terre" for the follow- 
ing Capuchin Fathers, then iu charge of the country 
missions : 

Father Theodore, from Chapitoulas. 

Father Philippe, from Les Allemands. 

Father Gaspard, from La Balize. 

Father Matthias, from La Mobile. 

Father Maximin, from Natchitoches. 

Father Fhilihert, from Natchez. 

Father Yietorin Dupny, from Les Apalaches. 



— 25 — 

The decisions of the Western Coinpauy gave to 
the Capuchins the exclusive control of the colonists; 
as we already know, the evangelization of the In- 
dians had been intrusted to the Jesuit Fathers. Their 
Superior, Father Petit, resided iu New Orleans, as the 
most convenient place to have his headquarters to 
direct and support his brethren in charge of the 
tribes and whose names, taken from a report of that 
time, are as follows : 

Father Poisson, with the Arkansas. 

Father Tartarin and 

Father Le Boulenger at Kaskia. 

Father Gnypeneau among the Metchigameas. 

Father Dontreleau on the Ouabache. 

Father Sonel among the Yazoos. 

Father Beaudouin, who was then attempting the 
dangerous task of establishing a mission among the 
treacherous Chickasaws. 

Notwithstanding the distinct and separate juris- 
diction of the Capuchins and of the Jesuits, there 
occurred some friction between these two orders, 
which gave rise to a series of contentions known de- 
risively as the "War of the Capuchins with the 
Jesuits." 

Father Beaudouin, having received a commission 
as Vicar-General from the Bishop of Quebec, per- 
formed in that capacity certain ceremonies in the city. 
The Capuchin Fathers, together with the Councilmen, 
protested against what they considered an encroach- 
ment upon their rights in their jurisdictiou, adding 
that according to their agreement with the Western 
Companj^, the Superior of the Jesuits could reside in 
New Orleans, but could not, without their consent, 



— 26 — 

perform therein any religious function. To this the 
Jesuits objected, maintaining- that there was no vio- 
lation of the established rules, as tlieir Superior acted 
not as a Jesuit, but as Vicar-General to the Bishop 
of Quebec. So tlie motive of the famous war was a 
mere question of jurisdiction; in reality a petty dis- 
cussion unworthy of notice. Some writers, however, 
have exaggerated its importance, but failed at the 
same time to emphasize the shameful spoliation of 
the Jesuits by the French Government, which sud- 
denly put an end to the quarrel. For it was at this 
same time, the 9th of June, 1763, that an Act of the 
Superior Council of Louisiana supi)ressed the Order 
of the Jesuits throughout the colony, saying it was 
dangerous to the royal authority, to the rights of tlie 
bishops, to the public peace and safety. The Jesuits 
were forbidden to use the name of their society, as 
also tlieir habit. Their property was confiscated and 
sold for $180,000. Moreover, the Jesuits were not 
only deprived of their property, but their chapel was 
leveled to the ground, leaving exposed the vaults 
wherein the dead were interred. They were com- 
pelled to give up their missions, and were placed on 
a vessel about to sail for France. 

Not only did the Capuchins forget their dissen- 
sions, but interfered in the behalf of the Jesuits, 
going so far as to offer them a temporary shelter 
alongside their own. The hitter, greatly pleased by 
this solicitude, exi)ressed their gratitude by leaving 
their hosts the books they had saved from the spolia- 
tion. 

It is sad to say that the same writer who de- 
scribed the Capuchin war to its trilling details, did 



— 27 — 

not find a single Avoid wherewith to bhime the spolia- 
tors who marred our history with such a shaineful 
crime against the light of proi)erty and hiiinan lib- 
erty. Among the men responsible for this horrible 
profanation, La Freniere's name alone descended to 
us. Strange to sny, his fate was an awful one. Less 
than six years after the exile of the Jesuits he was 
charged with conspiracy and put to death by the 
Spanish Government. In history he is ranked among 
the martyrs of liberty; but who could heartily give 
such a title to the very one who shamefully wronged 
his fellow citizens, and banished those who had con- 
tributed so much, both to the social and the materuil 
advancement of the colony 1 



Out of the nine or ten Capuchins left in Louisi- 
ana, when the Jesuits were expelled, five resided in 
New Orleans, with Father Dagobert de Longuy at 
their head. He had succeeded as superior Father 
Hilaire de Gen^vaux, exiled from the province some 
years previous, for having refused to share in a 
scheme of revolt planned by the council men against 
the Spaniards. Father Dagobert was well known 
and beloved in the colony. Having landed in ISTew 
Orleans in the very beginning of 172.3, he was already 
an old man when promoted to the Siiperiorship of his 
Order. He lived long enough, however, to witness 
the landing of the Spaniards, as also the flrst years 
of O'Reilly's administration. It was he who stood on 
the threshold of the church to welcome this famous 
General in the name of the clergy and parishioners, 



— 28 — 



when the hitter, on the 18th of August, 1769, sur- 
rounded by his escort in gorgeous array, crossed the 
"Place d' Amies" and proceeded to the church. 

Amidst the hon- 
ors and solemni- 
ties befitting the 
occasion. Father 
Dagobert prom- 
ised fidelity to the 
Crown of Spain 
and blessed the 
new colors which 
were hoisted in 
place of the white 
banner of France. 
The change of 
government caus- 
ed a change of ec- 
clesiastical juris- 
diction. The prov- 
ince passed from 
the hands of the 
Bishop of Quebec 
to the hands of the Bishoi^ of Santiago of Cuba. At 
first the new prelate confirmed Father Dagobert in 
his capacity of Vicar-General, with which he had been 
invested after the expulsion of the Jesuits. This was 
the wish of Louis XV, who asked, in the cession of 
Louisiana, "for the ecclesiasticals to be continued in 
their functions in the province." But, soon, this royal 
wish was disregarded, and not long after the landing 
of O'Keilly, Spanish Capuchins began to fill the place 
of their French brethren. 




Photo C. M. C. Courtesy of Miss DeVilliers- 

Rev. Father Dagobert de Longuy. 



— 29 — 

This action, however, did not pass without trou- 
ble, and the same monks who protested against the 
alleged encroachments of the Jesuits, tried, some ten 
years after, to oppose the pretentions of the Spanish 
Capuchins. Contradictory reports reached the new 
bishop about religious conditions in Louisiana, and 
led him to investigate. For tliis purpose he sent 
Father Cyrillo de Barcelona, with four Spanish Ca- 
puchins, to New Orleans, namely: Fatlier Francisco, 
Father Angel de Revillagodos, Father Louis de Quin- 
tanilla and Father Aleman. They landed on the 19th 
of July, 1773. Father Dagobert, leading the French 
Capuchins, and followed by a large crowd, went in a 
procession to the levee. Standing in front of the 
"Place d'Armes" the new comers were received with 
due honors and great demonstrations of joy. The 
next day they were formally introduced to Governor 
Unzaga. Father Cyrillo then presented his creden- 
tials from the bishop, whereupon the Governor ex- 
pressed his willingness to carry into execution the 
mandates of his superior, the Bishop of Cuba. 

Fathers Aleman and Angel de Revillagodos were 
at once appointed to parishes requiring pastors, and 
Father Cyrillo, with his two other companions, re- 
mained in ISTew Orleans as Father Dagobert's guests. 
This arrangement, however, was not destined to last, 
both characters being utterly dissimilar. Father 
Dagobert v/as more a father than a monk; having 
come into the colony as a young missionary, he had 
baptized and married almost every one. He was 
kind, meek, and always ready to render a service to 
the humblest of his flock, thus inspiring love instead 
of fear and mistrust. 



— 30 — 

Fatlier C^u-illo was the very opposite of this. 
Brought up iu the Spanish convents, where stern dis- 
cipline knew no master, he always abided by the rigid 
rules of his Order. Therefore, the manner in which 
his French brethren exercised their duties seemed 
scandalous to him, and he informed the Bishop of 
Cuba concerning what he considered lax methods of 
administration. Governor Unzaga interfered iu be- 
half of the French Capuchins, and wrote a letter of 
remonstrance to the bishop, in which he censured the 
Spanish friars severely. This offended the bishop 
and both parties referred the matter to the Spanish 
Court. The Government, without expressing a de- 
cisive opinion, advised both Prelate and Governor to 
compromise their disagreement so as to better pre- 
serve harmony between civil and ecclesiastical au- 
thorities. And peace was once more restored : Father 
Cyrillo continued to minister with an indomitable 
zeal, whilst Father Dagobert remained in charge of 
the Saint Louis Parochial Church of Xew Orleans 
until his death, which occurred on the 31st of May, 
177G. 

Tlie funeral services were conducted by Father 
Cyrillo himself, and he signed the following entry in 
the mortuary register: 

"I, Cyrillo de Barcelona peiformed the 

funeral service of Rer. Dagobert of Longuy of the 
Province of Champagne, a member of the Capuchin 
Order, and Apostolic Missionary of this Province for 
fifty-three years, eleven months and eleven days, as 
it appears from his act of obedience to the Rev. Bar- 
tholome y Faxera. He was rector of this Parish 
Church when he died, at the age of seventy-four 



— 31 — 



years, nine mouths and eleven days, on tlie 31st of 
May, having- received all the sacraments of the 
Church in the Presbytery. 

'•New Orleans, June 1st, 1776. 

"Rev. Cyrillo de Barcelona." 



The same liistorian who related, as the world be- 
lieves, so graphicall}', even to the minutest details, 
the war of the Capuchins with the Jesuits, deemed 
"it not inappropriate" to give in full the dreadful 
letters of Cyrillo; but this historian had failed to 
offer a true explanation of the cause and character of 
the whole quarrel. 

Some speak of Father Dagobert as if he was a 
saint, others paint him in the most ugly colors. But 
all exaggerate, and it is more truthful to say that 
Father Dagobert deserves neither that excess of 
honor, bestowed on him by some, nor the indignity 
heaped upon his memory by others. Governor Un- 
zaga eulogizes Father Dagobert and refers to him as 
a man loved and revered by the people, a most de- 
serving ])riest, in whom one could not detect a single 
one of the crimes imputed to him. ^Moreover, if he 
had been as this historian depicts him, he could not 
have escaped Count O'Reilly's vigilant eye, as the 
latter lived but a few yards distant from him, and 
would have had him removed for less than his ac- 
cusers charged hi in. "The declarations which are 
sometimes found in the writings of that day, respect- 
ing clerical depravity," says a writer, whose impar- 
tiality is universally recognized, "as a rule, had their 
origin in monastic prejudice or secular antipathies. 



— 32 — 

The clergy must have shared in the virtues of that 
period, for, otherwise, their iniluence among- the peo- 
ple would appear incomprehensible." 

As to Cyrillo's accusations, they must not be 
attributed to bad faith ; for when he arrived in Lou- 
isiana he was totally ignorant of the customs and 
language of the country. ^Misguided by his zeal, he 
saw in Father Dag^obert's methods much to censure, 
and thought it his duty to express his indig-nation to 
the Bishop of Cuba. 

But to depict Father Cyrillo as ambitious and 
intriguing- would be doing- him a most undeserved in- 
justice, as he led a very saintly life during his stay 
in the colony. When Father Cyrillo succeeded Father 
Dagobert as the head of the Parochial Church of iSTew 
Orleans, the King of Spain was informed that the 
Sacrament of Confirmation had never been adminis- 
tered in Louisiana, owing to the impossibility of the 
Bishop of Cuba traveling to such a remote part of his 
diocese. Therefore, the King resolved in his Council 
of the Indies, July 10, 1779, to apply to the Holy 
See to give the Superior of the Missions in Louisiana 
the power to confer Confirmation for a period of 
twenty years. This proposition was not favorably 
received, but the appointment of an auxiliary bishop 
was suggested, with his headquarters in New Or- 
leans, whence he could visit the missions on the JNIis- 
sissippi as well as jMobile, Pensacola and St. Augus- 
tine. 

The Pope favored the plan and appointed Father 
Cyrillo de Barcelona Auxiliary Bishop to the See of 
Santiago of Cuba, with the title of Bishop "in partibus 
infldelium " of Tricali. The new prelate was consecrat- 



— 33 — 

ed iu 1781 and proceeded to New Orleans, wLicli then 
for the first time enjoyed the presence of a Bishop. 
Cyrillo, being a really holy and saintly man, infused 
new life into the province. In 1786 he issued a pas- 
toral letter, urging his flock in eloquent terms to 
attend mass on Sundays and Holy days, denouncing 
the wicked custom of the negroes who, at the ves- 
pers hour, assembled in a green expanse called "Place 
Congo" to dance the bamboula and perform the hid- 
eous rites imported from Africa by the Yolofs, Fou- 
lahs, Bambarras, Mandigoes and other races of the 
Dark Continent. 

This zealous prelate proved tireless, faithfully 
visiting the country parishes, and leaving on the pa- 
rochial register a detailed report of his investiga- 
tions, urging everywhere the careful fulfilment of the 
mandates of the Council of Trent. During his admin- 
istration the number of priests in Louisiana increased 
rapidly, and from the official accounts we find five 
priests in New Orleans and one in the following 
places: Terre aux Ba?ux, Saint Charles, Saint John 
the Baptist, or Bonnet Carre, Saint James, Ascension, 
Saint Gabriel at Iberville, Pointe Coupee, Attakapas, 
Opelousas, Natchitoches, Natchez, Saint Louis, Sainte 
Genevieve, Saint Bernard, at Manchac, or Galveston. 

Bishop Cyrillo's services in Louisiana were cut 
short by the establishment of the province into a 
diocese independent from the See of Cuba, in 1793. 

"His Holiness" wrote the King, on the 23rd of 
November, 1793, "having issued the consistorial de- 
cree for the dismemberment of Louisiana and Florida 
and the establishment of a new Bishopric in these 
provinces, I have decided to withdraw your office of 



— 34 — 

Auxiliary, and order yoii to return to your Capuchin 
Province of Catalonia, with a salary of -f 1,000 per 
year." 

Bishop Cyrillo returned to Havana and abided 
with the Hospital Friars until such time as he could 
obtain the ])ayment of his salary, whereby he could 
obey the Kiug by returning' to his own country. We 
have no record of when or how Bishop Cyrillo died. 
But this much we know, his life was one of trials and 
hardships, ending in poverty and humility. Such 
was the man who unconsciously started and fought 
the famous "Quarrel of the Capuchins." 

The lives and the deeds of both Fathers Dago- 
bert and Cyrillo, better than any plea, show that the 
quarrel originated from the contact of two men di- 
versely educated, but by no means si)rung from their 
ambition or jealousy. Instead of "an historical illus- 
tration" that Gayarre deemed "not inappropriate" 
to iusert in his history, he has only succeeded in 
writing a tale '-a la liabelais," but in a much less 
talented wav. 



AVhen Bisho[) Cyrillo was appoijited Auxiliaiy 
Bishop to the See of Cuba, with the s[)ecial care of 
Louisiana and Florida, lie resigned the rectorship of 
the Saint Louis Patochial Churcli and appointed in 
his stead Father Antonio de Sedela y Arze. 

This famous monlc, better known as "Pefe Au- 
toine," was the last rector of the Parish Cliurch, but 
by lu:) nu'ans the less illustrious. 

If we include the two priests wlio had exercised 
the functions of lectors in New Orleans, previously 



— 35 — 

to the erection of the Saint Lonis Parish Church in 
1724 or 1725, we obtain the following complete list of 
the rectors of the ecclesiastical parish of IS'ew Or- 
leans, from the foundation of the city to 1788, when 
the Saint Louis Parish Church met with its unex- 
pected fate : 

Father Prothay Boyer, 1720, a Eecollet. 

Father Joseph de Saint Charles, 1721, a priest of 
the congregation of Saint Theresa. 

The Eevs. John iMatthew of Saint Ann and J. 
Eichard performed their sacred ministry in New Or- 
leans from time to time about 1720, but never assumed 
the title of rector. They signed " Eector of the ' Yieux 
Biloxi.' " 

Father Bruno de Langres was one of the first 
Capuchins who landed in New Orleans. He signs as 
rector of the city from 1722 until 1723, till the arrival 
of his superior. 

Father Raphael de Luxembourg, first Superior of 
the Cai)uchins, and rector from 1723 to his death in 
1735. 

Father Matthias, his successor, was depriv^ed of 
his functions in 1739 and was succeeded by 

Father Philippe de Genevaux. also dismissed in 
1741, and succeeded by 

Father Charles de Iiamhervilliers, a holy man, who 
did much to assure and maintain tlie concord between 
the Jesuits and the Capuchins. He died about 1746, 
and left as his successor 

Father Dagobert de Longuy. This latter quarreled 
again with the Jesuits and was succeeded by 

Father George de Fauqucmont in 1753. After the 



— 36 — 

expulsion of the Jesuits, De Fauquemont was sup- 
planted by 

Father Hilaire de Genevatix, who arrived from 
France in August, 1764. The following- year he was 
banished by the Superior Couucil, and for the sec- 
ond time, 

Father Bagobert de Longuy was appointed Supe- 
rior of the Capuchin Fathers, which office he retained 
until his death in 1776. Following him came 

Father Cyrillo de Barcelona, who himself ap- 
pointed as his successor 

Father Antonio de Sedella, in or about 1785. 

The latter had been in charge but a few years 
when the Saint Louis Parish Church perished in the 
great coniiagration that swept a large area of the 
city, on March 21st, 1788. So, unexpectedly, there 
was erased from the heart of the city this church, in 
which during more than sixty years the people of New 
Orleans came to worship. Being the only parochial 
church of the city in colonial days, it was the center 
of the social and religious life. 

With it disappeared the hist witness of romantic 
and chivalrous Louisiana. But its ashes proved im- 
mortal, as less than six years after the awful Good 
Friday of 1788, a majestic Cathedral rose on the very 
spot whereupon stood the '-Saint Louis Parish Church 
of New Orleans." 



CHAPTER II. 

DON ANDRES ALMONESTER Y ROXAS. 



A Noble Benkfactoh — A Solemn Dedication — Troubles 
OF A Goi.d-Hearticd Man — "Sic Transit Gloria 

MUNDI." 



The Saiut Louis Cathedral of IS'ew Orleans owes 
its existence to the generosity of Don Andres Al- 
monester y Iloxas. This Spanish nobleman was born 
at Mayrena del Alcor, in the Kingdom of Sevilla. 
His parents, Don Miguel Jose Almonester and Donna 
Maria Joanna de Estrada, were members of the first 
families of Andalusia. 

A royal notary, judge, standard bearer, colonel of 
the militia, knight of the illustrious Order of Carlos 
III, all these titles were borne by him with the utmost 
dignity. His memory, however, would long since have 
been forgotten if it had not been rescued from obli- 
vion by his everlasting generosity. 

When in 1779 a terrible hurricane swept away 
the humble hospital which a simple sailor named 
Jean Louis founded in 17.37, Almonester had another 
one erected at a cost of no less than $114,000. In 
1787, the same generous benefactor donated a beau- 
tiful chapel to the Ursuline Convent and also built 
schools for the instruction of girls. 

A few years later, Almonester acquainted the 
councilmen (they were at this time administrators of 
the Church property) with his intention of rebuilding 
the parish church that had just been destroyed by 



^1 <^»l'!h 




— 39 — 

tlie fire of March 27, 17S8. The ofeer was gladly ac- 
cepted and the work of reconstruction was com- 
menced in the spring of the following- year. 

At the close of 1794, the new edifice was com- 
pleted, and on Christinas day dedicated with great 
pomp. Don Joaqnin de Portillo, at that time recto r 
of the parish, has left us an accurate account of 
these ceremonies which we rescued lately from the 
dusty archives of the Cathedral. This document ori- 
ginally framed in Spanish remained unpublished and 
is now given to the public for the first time : 

"New Saint Louis Parochial Church of the 
City of New Orleans. 

"In the year of Our Lord 1794, in the twentieth of the Pontificate of 
our Holy Father, Pope Pius VI, and in the seventh year of the 
reign of His Catholic Majesty, Don Carlos VI, Don Louis 
Penalver y Cardenas, being elected first Bishop of the newly 
erected See of Louisiana; Baron de Carondelet, Brigadier 
General of the Eoyal Army, being Governor of this city and 
province, on the 23rd day of the month of December, the new 
St. Louis Parochial Church of this city was blessed. 

" This parochial church, which became the Cathedral Church since 
the erection of Louisiana into a diocese distinct from that of 
Havana, owes its existence to the piety and zeal of Don Andres 
Almonester y Eoxas, a native of the city of Mayrena del Alcor, 
Kingdom of Sevilla, in Spain, a knight of the illustrious Order 
of Carlos III, colonel of the militia of Xew Orleans and per- 
petual Regidor of the Supreme Court. 

" This Tcnight, so commendable for his eminent piety, is almost with- 
out an equal ; the three churches of this city in which are offered 
prayer and sacrifice to our Lord are monuments of his devotion 
and piety. At his own expense he built the chapel of the Ursu- 
line Convent, a school for young girls, the Charity Hospital 
and its chapel, and also donated ground to serve as a site for a 
lepers' home. 



— 40 — 

" These works alone would suffice to make his name illustrious and 
gain for him the esteem and friendship of all his fellow-citi- 
zens. Yet, he did more. A fire havinc/ destroyed the parochial 
chvrch on the 21st of MarcJi, 17SS, the fjrief of the people viade 
him conceire the vast project, worthy of his great heart, of re- 
building this sanctuary at his own expense. The edifice was 
iegiin in March, 1789, and, in spite of a thousand obstacles, 
Almonester succeeded within fire years in giving it the perfec- 
tion, grandeur, solidity and beauty wliich we now admire. 

"Finally, the parish being unable, for want of funds, to decorate 
the interior in a manner worthy of a cathedral, he took upon 
himself ihe necessary expense of building a gallery on each side 
of the nave and proriding a beautiful balustrade for the choir, 
together with a main altar omvhieh the workmen were still en- 
gaged when another terrible fire broke out on the Sth of Decem- 
ber and destroyed the temporary chapel. The Blessed Sacrament 
UHis carried to the chapel of the Vrsulines and the ornamenta- 
tion of the main altar hastily completed to receive our Lord so 
that the people might with more facility assist at the offices of 
the Church. 

"■ The nnv edifice was blessed on ihe day and in the year before men- 
tioned, in the presence of the ecclesiastical and civil authorities 
of this city. At the opening of the ceremony, our illustrious 
benefactor presented the keys of the church to the Governor, 
who then handed them over to me. Immediately afterwards 
Don Patricio TFalsh, an Irish priest. Chaplain of the Boyal 
Hospital, Foreign Vicar, Ecclesiastical Judge of the Province 
for the Bishop of Havana (the Bishop of Louisiana having not 
yet taken possession), blessed the church. The Holy Sacrifice 
of the Mass followed the blessing, and these magnificent cere- 
monies filled with joy the hearts of all the faithful. 

" The next day, December !24, the clergy assembled in tlie monastery 
of the Ursnlines, to u-hieh the Blessed Sacrament had beoi car- 
ried after the fire of December S. The Governor, with all the 
notable piersonages of the city, also met therein ; a jivocession 
was formed and the Blessed Sacrament carried u-ith the t/reatest 




Photo B. de Villentroy. From an Old Painting. 

Dox Andres Almonester y Roxas. 



— 42 — 

solemnity to fJte iieiv cliiireli in irliich I sang the Jirst Mass and 
preached the first sermon. 
" After the henediction of the Blessed Sacrament, the ceremony was 
closed by the chanting of the ' Te DeunV for the greater glory of 
God, and this was followed by lond salutes of artillery. M is 
then hnt Jnst that the people and the ministers of the Church 
should render perpetual gratitude to their illustrious and noble 
benefactor, Don Andres Almonester y Eoxas, and it is to pre- 
vent his ivories from falling into ohlivion that I mention Ms 
name here 'AD PERPETUAM REI MEMORIAM.' 

'' December 30th, 1794. 

"Don Joaquin de Poktillo." 



The fame of Almonester did not fail to give offense 
to some less fortunate or less generous than he. Some 
misrepresented his intentions and suspected him of 
ambition ; others hindered his plans and did not even 
hesitate to dispute his right to the control of the 
hospital which he had founded. Governor Miro, his 
friend, referred the matter to the King, who speedily 
put an end to all intrigues and rewarded the gener- 
osity of Almonester as became his great merit. 

The King wrote: 

" Having dulj-, in this my Council of the Indies, 
considered the conflicting reports presented to me, 
Don Andres Almonester is to be relieved from the 
obligation of accounting for his administrative acts 
in the hospital which he founded. * * * He is 
authorized to occupy the most })romineut seat in his 
church, second only to that of the royal Vice Patron 
(the Intendant of the Province), and to receive the 
Kiss of Peace (la paz) during the celebration of 
Mass. He is entitled to assistance in case of neces- 




Photo B. de Villentroy. 



From an Old Painting. 



Right Kkv. Pknalvkh y Caiidenas. 



— 44 — 

sity. and iu order that these ordinances shall be 
faithfully carried out according to my royal command, 
it is again ordered that the aforesaid Almonester, 
whatever may betide, is to be given loyal support 
and aid in whatever he may undertake, and, so as 
to preclude all further cause of complaint, he is to 
be treated in future with deferential regard as one 
who has found grace near my royal person (grato a 
me real persona) by the achievement of great works, 
by drawing so generously upon his own resources 
for the construction of the parochial church, the 
T^rsuline Convent, the Charity Hospital and the Gov- 
ernment Buildings of New Orleans. All of which 
and of his free will, he has accomplished in honor of 
his religion and of his state, and for the edification 
and encouragement of mankind. 

" Therefore, I do hereby order and command the 
aforesaid Governor of the Province of Louisiana, and 
also the Intendant of my Royal Exchequer, together 
with the judges and justices of the above mentioned 
province to keep, comply with, and execute this, my 
royal decree, without contravening it, for such is my 
roval will. 

"Yo El Eey." 

Given at Saii Ildefouso, August 14tli, 1794. 



Nothing is more fleeting than glorj'. In the 
same registers in which Dou Joaquin de Portillo had 
written, in 1794, the dithyrambic i)raise of the 
founder of the Saint Louis Cathedral, Don Perez re- 
corded, four years later, the death of the generous 
nobleman. 



W'l^ ^.-/^'^ •' ' '''--futxent ■ - 35. 

!^4^f,'iiiiiiiiiilif|gy - 034 

■¥a,'m4*m»'i'hyr lV.*.i.:^.''-'/A-'."»' •>^i^/'>v/--^/-'3J 



■I. '' . ,' Oi 












t^ 




-v. 25 









[■/2! 



■.fJ<j^yVr 



T'^/f', 









''- \f^ 

. 4 ''^ 



-r2h 

■'VI 
• a: 

'HIT. 






./^^limn-ui /L.'i^Jr^'^ 



Photo C. M. C. Cathedral Archives. 

Fac Simile of the First Sale of the Cathedral's Pews. 



— 46 - 

Don Andres Almonester y Koxas had died so sud- 
denly tliat it was impossible to even administer to 
bini the last sacraments of the Church. 

His cori)se was solemnly lowered under the altar 
of the Sacred Heart in the Saint Louis Cathedral. 

A marble slab in the paA^ement marks the place 
of his tomb and bears his coat of-arms together with 
the record of his life, titles and services. The carved 
letters are still visible, although somewhat effaced 
by the ceaseless tread of several generations. The 
iuscrii)tion written in Si)anish is generally translated 
as follows : 

Here Lie the Remains 

OF 

Don Andres Almonester y Eoxas 

A Native of Mayrena, 

IN THE Kingdom of Andalusia. 

He Died in the City of New Orleans, 

ON THE 26th Day of April, 1708, 

Being 73 Years of Age. 

A Knight of the Royal and Distinguished 

Order of Charles III, 

Colonel of the Militia of This Department, 

Alderman and Royal Lieutenant of This Corporation, 

Founder and Donor of This Holy Cathedral, 

Founder of the Royal Hospital of St. 

Charles and of Its Church, 

Founder of thk Hospital for Lepers, 

Founder of the Ursulines Convent, 

Founder of the School for the Education of Girls, 

Founder of the Court House, 

All of Which He Had Built at His Own Expense 

IN This City. 

Requiescat in Pace. 



— 47 — 

The city bas long- since forgotten the man whose 
name was synonymous with generosity. It is a sad 
fact that the founder of the Cabildo and of our great 
Charity Hospital, theflrst patron of female education 
in the State, is not only seldom si)oken of. but the 
memory of his benefits has not even been perpetuated 
by naming a street in his honor. The church alone 
still i)iously cherishes the memory of her benefactor, 
and, from time to time, the tolling of her bells pro- 
claims through the ages lier eternal gratitude. 



CHAPTER III. 
PERE ANIOINK. 



A Mich Di 'jatkd Chauactek — Thk Tribunal of the Holy 
Imjcisitiox in Louisiana — Humility and Charity 
or Pei!k AxroiNE — A Pompous Funeral. 



The Saint Louis Cathedral, so nobly erected and 
adorned by Don Andres Almonester y Roxas, was 
destined to be adiiiinisteied during the first thirty 
years of its cxistencf by a man who more than all 
otliers impressed liis individuality upon these times 
and whose name, to this day, is mentioned with ven- 
eration and love throughout the old French section. 

Peiliaps tlie memory and the deeds of no man 
have been more vaiiously discussed, analyzed, criti- 
cised or eulogized tliiin tiiat of Father Antoine. 



— 48 — 

r"^ Many have been the disputes over the character 
of this wonderful priest, for wonderful Avas he to 
have left a name which, despite all criticisms, stands 
out as one of the sweetest, truest and most benevo- 
lent in the annals of Old New Orleans. 

By some he is celebrated as a saint, a rival of 
the hermits of Thebais, a gold hearted man whose 
charity was only equaled by his [)rofound humility. 
Others cannot find words harsh enough with which 
to brand his alleged ignorance and ambition. But 
by a faithful com})arison of the traditions concerning 
Father Autoine with the old records of the Cathe- 
dral archives, which have never yet been published, 
it seems that Father Antoine deserved neither the 
great indignities with which some have sought to 
besmirch his memor}-, nor the excessive honor and 
praise with which others have crowned him. 

This man, a monk of the Capuchin Order, was 
Autoine Ildefonso Moreno y Arze, born on the IStli 
of Kovembei-, 1748, at Sedella. in the Kingdom of 
Grenada, and more familiarlj' known as " Pere An- 
toine." In his early youth he entered the religions 
order of the Capuchins, and ui)on completing his 
studies he received the degree of Doctor in Divinity, 
a striking proof of the fact that he was a man of 
profound learning and not the illiterate product of 
ignorance rhat some claimed him to be. 

In 1779, Father Antoine, in company Avith a few 
others of his order, landed in New Orleans. These 
Capuchins came to fill the vacancies caused by the 
death or the departure of the French monks of their 
order. That purpose was not only religious, but 
educational; the country being since ten years a 



— 49 — 

colony of Spain, they did great work in spreading 
the Spanish language and a knowledge of Spanish 
customs. 

Father Antoiue's zeal and brilliant talents 
brought him into prominence, and a few years after 
his landing he became rector of the Saint Louis 
Church of Kew Orleans, at this time the only parish 
of the city and the most important of the twelve or 
fifteen churches scattered throughout Louisiana. 

The rectorship of Saint Louis Church, which 
would seem so desirable, did not prove a bed of roses 
for Father Antoine, All sorts of troubles and dis- 
putes arose, and for many years Father Antoine 
fought his battles. He never knew from day to day 
what the morrow would bring forth, and it was only 
during the last years of his life that he breathed 
peacefully, entirelj^ absorbed in works of charity 
and devotion to his flock. 



In the first place. Father Antoine had to deal 
with the civil authorities on account of the Inquisi- 
tion, of which he had been appointed the Commis- 
sary on the 5th of December, 1788. His appointment 
as head of the Holy Inquisition in Louisiana caused 
him so much anxiety and sorrow that he kept it 
secret, and it was only in the beginning of the follow- 
ing year that he concluded to apprise Governor 
Miro of the fact by ])lacing before him his commission 
and instructions, which he had received from Spain. 

" It is an historical fact," says Mr, H. C. Castella- 
nos, in his 'New Orleans As It Was,' "that wherever 
Spain exercised dominion, the peculiar institutions of 



— 50 — 

the motlier country were engrafted upon tlie colony. 
So, by tlie mere transfer of Louisiana from France to 
Spain, the Inquisition became ipso facto incorporated 
into its political macliinery, and is extensively spoken 
of in tLe '■ Bando de Gobierno,' issued by O'Reilly 
on the 25tli of Kovember, 1709. 

"The principal object of the institution of the tri- 
bunal of the 'Santa Hermandad,' being to repress dis- 
order and to prevent the robberies and assassinations 
committed in nnfreipiented places by vagabonds and 
delinquents who conceal tliemselves in the woods, 
from which they sally forth and attack travelers and 
the neighboring inhabitants, the Alcade Mayor Pro- 
vincial, shall assemble a sufficient number of brothers 
of the Santa Hermandad to clear his jurisdiction of 
the perpetrators of such evil deeds, by pursuing them 
with spirit, seizing or putting them to death," 

Now if we bear in mind that Father Antoine 
landed in New Orleans in 1779, the charge upon him 
of introducing the Inquisition falls naturally to the 
ground. The Inquisition i)receded Father Antoine in 
Louisiana by ten years, and, far from being the 
originator of that so much liated institution, he has 
been its only victim, as this part of the governmental 
machinery remained merely nominal and was gen- 
erally ignored by the people. 

Still, to give effect to the mission entrusted to 
his fidelity. Father Antoine requested the Goveruor 
to furnish him with a posse, as the secular arm was 
necessary to enforce the law, and there began a most 
serious entanglement of affairs, which to this day 
remains in many ways unexplained, and which has 
been often misjudged and misunderstood. A simple. 




Photo B. de Villentroy. From an Old Painting. 

Peke Antoine de Sedella. 



— 52 — 

manly refusal would have sufficed to strike the pro- 
ceeding with nullity, but the Governor followed a 
different course. He received the friar with apparent 
cordiality, promised to grant him his request, while at 
the very time he was planning the ruin of his unsus- 
pecting countryman. Within twenty -four hours after 
the interview a platoon of soldiers filed into the bed- 
room of Father Antoine and forcibly carried him 
out to a ship about to sail for Cadiz. Governor 
Miro, in a special report to the Court of Spain, dated 
June 3, 1789, explained the whole affair as follows: 
"When I read the communication of that Capuchin I 
shuddered. The mere mention of the Inquisition ut- 
tered in New Orleans would be sufficient not only to 
check immigration, which is successfully progressing, 
but would also be capable of driving away those who 
have recently come, and I even fear that, in spite of 
my having sent out of the country Father Sedella, the 
most frightful consequences may ensue from the mere 
suspicion of the cause of his dismissal." 

These are the facts of the whole transaction, and 
it is upon them that some writers do not hesitate to 
lay ou Father Antoine this most hideous accusation 
of having introduced the Inquisition in Louisiana. 
This charge, which is a mere calumny, needed only 
this plain statement of facts to be utterly refuted. 



Father Antoine canie back to New Orleans in the 
si)ring of 1791, after an absence of two years, with 
the title of Honorary Preacher to His Most Catholic 
Majesty, the King of Spain. For the ten years fol- 
lowing we lose sight of this marvelous character, and 



- 53 - 

tbe quiet and unobtrusive life he must have led is the 
best proof of how little tliought he had of ever forc- 
ing the Inquisition in Louisiana. 

Many years have passed, and the calm, deliberate 
recital of historical facts gleaned from the most relia- 
ble authorities brings out the character of Father 
Antoine in its true light. 

If they do not entirely exonerate him from hav- 
ing taken an active part in the sad dissentions of his 
time, if a dispassionate reader could expect a differ- 
ent line of conduct from a man who had pledged his 
life to obedience and self-denial, it would be never- 
theless unjust to lay upon him any blame. Whoso- 
ever says that he was an ambitious man for whom 
everything was a means towards self-advancement, 
proves by this imputation only a sad ignorance of the 
private life of Father Antoine. 

It would not indeed be an easy task to reconcile 
these charges with Father Antoine's proverbial repu- 
tation for asceticism and his no less admirable char- 
ity and, above all, with the deep veneration with 
which even now his memory is regarded. He lived 
like an anchorite, though dwelling in the central i^art 
of the city. In the rear of the old Saint Louis Ca- 
thedral he built himself a simple hermitage. It was 
a hut of planks and boughs, much more uncomforta- 
ble than a dog kennel, and much more exposed to 
weather than a cow shed. It had no furniture but a 
bed, made of two hard boards, a stool and a holy 
water font. But here the good iiriest slept and ate 
and prayed; blessing God alike whether it rained or 
froze. Although at his death he left little or nothing, 
his income must certainly have been large; for he 



— 54 — 

never visited a scene of birtb, of marriage, or of 
death, ^Yitllont receiving" some gift; and his daily 
visits were many. His charity, however, was greater 
than his income; and his purse, like that of the fairy 
tale, was being forever enii)tied, though fresh gold 
always glittered there in the jilace of that taken out. 
This purse, tradition says, was a great bag tilled with 
clinking coin and carried at the girdle. Whenever 
Father Antonio appeared upon the street the chil- 
dren of the French qnarter followed after him. They 
would always kneel down beside him in the mud 
to ask for his blessing when oi)portunity offered, and 
they never failed to demand that a lagniappe, (*) in 
the shape of a small coin, be thrown in with the bless- 
ing". It is probable that they cared much more for 
the lagniai)pe than they did for the blessing; but tlie 
good father never refused either. 

Fully occupied as he was with his ministry and 
charitable works, he never cared for the tem^wral ad- 
ministration of the parish affairs. This management 
remained entrusted to the wardens, and Father An- 
toine left them such freedom in the financial adminis- 
tration that they finally believed that they were the 
true owners of the church properties, which they 
could dispose of according to their own will and 
pleasure. 

The man who cared so little for worldly goods 
was equally disinterested as regards public honors. In 



(*) Lagniappe: A word of Spanish patois signifying a bonus, 
something in kind given by storekeepers in the French 
quarter after purchasing articles. Lagniappe consisted of 
candy or pecans, and in the case of Father Antoine it might 
have been a fevs^ cents. 



the warden's miuntes we read a letter from Father An- 
toiiie to the Bishop of Baltimore, which acqnaiiits us 
with au event which up to now has remained unknown. 
Having heard that some members of the clergy and 
laity had applied to Eome in order to have him ap- 
pointed Bishop of Louisiana, Father Antoiue declared 
to the Bishop of Baltimore that he would not con- 
sider for a u)oment such a proposition, that he was 
unworthy of such an honor, and too old to do any 
good. Consequently he would be very grateful to the 
Bishop if he were to cut short any further efforts in 
that direction. 

Father Antoine remained until his death what 
he wished to be: a monk devoted to charity, chastity 
and obedience. In his cabin he was more influential 
than the constituted anthorities of the government, 
richer than those who extended to him their chari- 
ties, and as such loved by his flock as the most zeal- 
ous priest could wish to be. 

He died on the 22d of January, 1829, and his 
burial was more of a triumph than of a funeral. 



The body of this revered patriarch, says the 
Louisiana Advertiser, the spiritual father of the 
past and the present generation, remained exposed 
in the building where the Catholic vestry holds its 
meetings, Orleans street, from Monday, the day of 
his decease, till yesterday, when it was transferred to 
the church. During that time, a crowd of i)eople of 
all ages, sexes and colors flocked to pay their last 
tribute of respect to him, whom, when alive, they 
regarded as their guide, their father and friend. 



— 56 — 

Father Aiitoiiie's features bad preserved their 
mild aud placid expression. Death had dealt geutly 
with him and laid a soft liand upon him. He seemed 
like a saint rapt in holy meditation, nothing in 
his countenance indicating the ravages of sickness 
and the approach of decay. The silent tears, the 
sob of anguish, the prayer of the good, the blessing 
of the poor attested that a whole life devoted to 
deeds of charity and virtue had received its only ap- 
propriate earthly recompense — the sincere regrets 
of a grateful jieople. 

Early on Thursday morning the firing of a can- 
non announced that his venerable remains were about 
to be removed to their last abode. Both Houses of 
the Legislature, in accordance with public sentiment, 
had resolved to adjourn for that day and to assist 
at the interment. The Court of Justice, on the 
motion of Mr. Livingston, the oldest member of the 
bar, had adopted a similar determination. The City 
Council also had passed the resolution of Mr. Laverty, 
declaring that its members would join the procession 
and wear crepe for thirty days. 

The Cathedral was dressed in the insignia of 
deep mourning. A splendid catafalque, surmounted 
with lofty white feathers, stood on the right. Op- 
posite the main altar an elevated platform had been 
erected, surrounded with steps and covered with 
black cloth. On the angles of the structure and on 
all the steps, lighted tapers were placed. On the 
right, under the altar consecrated to Saint Francis, 
at whose shrine the deceased had daily for half a 
century i)aid his devotions, the grave, destined to re- 
ceive whatever of him was mortal, stood ojien. 



— 57 — 

The Louisiana Legion and tlie Lafayette Riflemen 
were drawn up in front of the church, the main 
portal of which was hung with black drapery, sur- 
mounted with the following- inscription, admirable 
alike for its conciseness, its energy of expression and 
the purity of its Latin : 



t 



Patri 

Antonio de Sedella 

Sacm. 

longceyus quamvis occubueris 

Ingens Tamen Nobis 

Tux Desiderium 

. Reliquisti. 

which we attempted to translate as follows : 

Sacred to 

Father Antonio de Sedella. 

Although Thou Hast Fallen Full of Years, 

Yet Thou Hast Left Our Hearts 

Filled with Mighty 

Sorrow. 

The executive officers of the State, the members 
of the Legislature, the judges, the members of the 
City Council, the municipal officers, the gentlemen 
of the bar, the foreign consuls, and a vast multi- 
tude of citizens of all denominations filled the 
church to overflowing. Father Moni, the successor 



— 58 — 

of the deceased in Lis clerical functions and in 
the affection of bis flock, officiated at the altar, sur- 
rounded by the whole body of the Catholic clergy of 
this and of the neighboring- j^arishes. The solemn 
effect of the high mass on the crowd was enhanced 
by the grief depicted on the visages of the priests 
and the choristers, and every heart seemed to respond 
to the mournfully touching strains of the music 
poured forth from the galleries above. 

When the mass was finished and the music 
paused, Father Manhault ascended the pulpit. He 
was eloquent without attempting to be so; for all 
that he said went to the heart of his hearers; he 
was the mere interpreter of every one's thoughts ; 
he did not panegyrise, he had nothing to extenuate, 
nothing to palliate ; he drew a faithful picture of an 
original impressed on every mind ; he spoke of the 
virtues of the departed, of his liumauity, of his in- 
dulgences to others, his severity to himself, of his 
universal good will towards men, and when he con- 
cluded by entreating all present to comply with the 
last request of the dying saint, '' that all his flock 
should join in prayer that his soul might soon rest in 
bliss," we are pursuaded that fervent aspirations to 
that effect went forth to the Throne of Grace from 
the whole assembled multitude. 

The coffln containing the cori)se was borne off on 
the shoulders of four young men surrounded by eight 
pall bearers, friends of the deceased, and the i^roces- 
sion moved from the church in the following order 



— 59 — 

The Legiou, 

The Catholic Clergy, 

The Corpse, 

Physicians of the Deceased, 

The Church Wardens, 

The Governor and Secretary of State, 

The President and Merahers of the Senate, 

The Speaker and Members of the House of Representatives, 

The Judges of the Supreme Court, 

The Judges of the District, Criminal and Parish Courts, 

The Judges of the City Court, 

Foreign Consuls, 

The Mayor and Recorder, 

The Members of the City Council, 

Clergy of Different Denominations, 

Members of the Bar, 

Citizens. 

It proceeded down Conde street to Main street, 
down Main to Royal, up Royal to St. Louis, thence 
to Chartres street, and down Cliartres to the Cathe- 
dral, where two discourses were pronounced in com- 
memoration of the virtues of the deceased, one in the 
Spanish, the other in the English language. 

The time now arrived for depositing beneath the 
sod the earthly envelope of the departed spirit. 
Here ends our task. It is beyond our power to de- 
scribe the closing scene, nor have we a language to 
express the deep and solemn sensations experienced 
by all around when the earth was thrown over what 
had so lately been animated by as pure a soul as 
ever dwelt in a human body. 

These words remain the verdict of history as 
regards Father Antoine, and time brought to his 
glorious memory the last vindication. On the 29th 



— 60 — 

of November, 1885, the Saint Louis Cathedral was 
adorned as on a feast day, and the centenary of the 
appointment of Father Antoine de Sedella to the 
Saint Louis Parish Church of Kew Orleans was pom- 
pously celebrated in i)resence of many bishops and of 
the dijilomatic corps. The Rev. T. Pla pronounced the 
panegyric of the deceased, and recalled from the ages 
the memory of "Pere Antoine," to whom he did not 
fear to apply these words of the Psalmist: "The 
memory of the just shall be in everlasting remem- 
brance, and the words of evildoers shall not hurt 
him." 



PART II. 

THE SAINT LOUIS 
CATHEDRAL. 



OHAPTEE I. 



IN COMING DOWN A CENTURY. 



The Saint Louis Cathedral, erected by Dou An- 
dres Almonester y Eoxas, and since its very begin- 
ning made famous by its first rector, Father Antoine, 
did not pass through a century without feeling the 
destructive touch of time, nor the improving hand of 
man. 

Towards 1814, under the direction of architect 
Laborde, its side towers were crowned with low 
spires and the top of its facade ornamented with four 
gigantic firecones of granite. Ten years later the 
architect Le Kiche erected a belfry in the center of 
the facade, to match with the side towers. 

Thus thoroughly completed, the Cathedral re- 
mained nearly intact until 1850. A city guide, issued 
in 1845, gives the following description of this edifice 
after its completion: "The architecture of the Cathe- 
dral is by no means pure, but is not wanting in effect 
on this account. The lower story is of the rustic 
order, flanked at each of the front angles by hexag- 
onal towers and adorned with pilasters of plain ifia- 
sonry and two clustered tuscan columns on either 
side of the main entrance. The second story of the 
front has the same general appearance as the lower 
one, but is of the Eoman Doric order. On the apex 
of its pediment rises the principal turret, built in 
two parts ; a lower part, square, about twenty feet in 
height, with circular apertures on each side, and the 



— 64 — 



upper part hexagonal, used as a belfry. This belfry 
became the city watch tower at the request of the 
Mayor, and each night a sentinel was stationed with- 
in to give the alarm in case of fire." 



CHAPTER II. 



A "TE DEUM" OF VICTORY. 



The most elaborate and grandiose ceremony ever 
held in the Saint Louis Cathedral before its partial 
reconstruction, in 1850, was a solemn Thanksgiving, 
celebrated on the 23d of January, 1815, in honor of 
the glorious victory of General Jackson over the 
British forces of General Pakenham. We quote from 
Gayarre : 

"All the citizens, whatever their religious creed 
was, joined their exertions to make that festival as 
impressive as it was in their power. In front of the 
Cathedral, in the middle of that square which is now 
known as Jackson Square, and where the equestrian 
statue of tbe hero commemorates his fame and the 
gratitude of Louisiana, a triumphal arch was tempo- 
rarily erected. It was supported by six columns. 
On the right was a young woman with the attributes 
of Justice, which she represented, and another, on 
the left, personated the Goddess of Liberty. Under 
the arch, two beautiful boys, looking as though they 
were angels dropped from heaven on the pedestals on 



— 66 — 

which they stood, held, each in his tiny hand, a crown 
of laurels. From the arch to the church, at pro])er 
intervals, were ranged young ladies representing the 
different States and Territories of the American 
Union. They were all dressed in white, and covered 
with transparent veils. A silver star glittered on 
their foreheads. Each one held in her right hand a 
flag on which was inscribed the name of the State 
she represented, and in her left a basket of flowers 
trimmed with blue ribbons. Behind each was a 
shield appended to a lance stuck in the ground, and 
inscribed with the name of a State or a Territory. 
These shields were linked together with verdant fes- 
toons, and formed a kind of lane from the triumphant 
arch to the gray towers of the time honored Cathe- 
dral. In the rear on both sides, and extending from 
the entrance of the square, which faced the river to 
the church, was a glittering avenue of bayonets 
formed by the uniformed companies of Plauche's Bat- 
talion, and back of them, in every direction, surged 
and undulated like a sea of human beings the im- 
mense multitude assembled to witness the pageantry 
of the day. 

'' The boom of artillery and a burst of military 
music announced the approach of the hero. The air 
was rent with acclamations, and the hands of beauty 
waved handkerchiefs and flags from the adjacent 
buildings, which were crowded with eager si)ectators. 
As General Jackson passed under the triumphal arch 
he was crowned by the two youthful genii, who ex- 
pected him on their pedestals, and was congratulated 
in an address delivered by the girl who personated 
the State of Louisiana. Tlien, as he proceeded to the 



— 67 — 



church, the other States aiul Territories gracefully 
bowed their heads to him, each waving" her flag, aud 
strewing his jiath with flowers. At the door of the 
Cathedral he met 
Abbe Dubourg- with 
all his clergy. That 
venerable personage 
addressed him in 
these terms, so well 
suited to the occa- 
sion and to the sa- 
cred character of 
the ceremony : 

^''General: Whilst 
the State of Louisi- 
ana, in the joyful 
transports of her 
gratitude, hails you 
as her deliverer and 
the asserter of her 
menaced liberties ; 

whilst grateful Ameiica, so lately Avrapped up in 
anxious suspense on the fate of this im[)ortant city, 
the emporium of the wealth of one-half of her terri- 
tory, and the true bulwark of her independence, is now 
re-echoing from shore to shore your splendid achieve- 
ments, and preparing to inscribe your name on her im- 
mortal rolls among those of her Washingtons ; whilst 
history, poetry, and the monumental arts will vie in 
consigning to the admiration of the latest posterity 
a triumph perhaps unparalleled in their records ; 
whilst thus raised by universal acclamation to the 
very pinnacle of fame, and surrounded with ascend- 




Phuto C. M. C. From an Old Painting. 

Abbe Guillaujme V. Dubourg. 



— 68 — 

ing clouds of iucense, how easy it had been for you, 
General, to forget the Prime Mover of your wonderful 
success, and to assume to yourself a praise which 
must essentially return to that exalted source whence 
every sort of merit is derived ! But, better ac- 
quainted with the nature of true glory, and justly 
placing- the summit of your ambition in approving 
yourself the worthy instrument of Heaven's merciful 
designs, the first impulse of your religious heart was 
to acknowledge the signal interposition of Providence; 
your first step is a solemn display of your humble 
sense of His favors. 

" ' Still agitated at the rememberance of those 
dreadful agonies from which we have been so mira- 
culously rescued, it is our duty also to acknowledge 
that the Almighty has truly had the principal hand 
in our deliverance, and to follow you, General, in at- 
tributing to His infinite goodness the homage of our 
unfeigned gratitude. Let the infatuated votary of 
a blind chance deride our credulous simplicity; let 
the cold-hearted atheist look up for the explanation 
of such important events to the mere concatenation 
of human causes; to us the whole universe is loud in 
proclaiming a Supreme Ruler, who, as he holds the 
hearts of man in his hands, holds also the thread of 
all contingent occurrences. "Whatever be His inter- 
mediate agents," says an illustrious prelate, "still on 
the secret orders of His all-ruling providence depend 
the rise and prosperity, as well as the decline and 
downfall of empires. From His lofty throne above 
He moves every scene below, now curbing, now letting 
loose the passions of men; now infusing His own 
wisdom into the leaders of nations ; now confounding 



— 69 — 

tbeir boasted prudence, and spreading- upon their 
councils a spirit of intoxication, and thus executing 
his uncontrollable judgments on the sons of men ac- 
cording to the dictates of His own unerring justice." 
" 'To him. therefore, our most fervent thanks are 
due for our late unexpected rescue, and it is Him vre 
chiefly intend to praise, when considering you, Gen- 
eral, as the man of his right hand, whom he has taken 
pains to fit out for the important commission of our 
defense. We extol that fecundity of genius by which, 
in circumstances of the most discouraging distress, 
you created unforeseen resources, raised as it were 
from the ground hosts of intrepid warriors, and pro- 
vided every vulnerable point with ample means of 
defense. To Him we trace that instinctive sui^eriority 
of your mind, which alone rallied around you univer- 
sal confidence, impressed one irresistible movement to 
all the jarring elements of which this political machine 
is composed, aroused their slumbering spirits, and 
diffused through every rank that noble ardor which 
glowed in your own bosom. To Him, in fine, we ad- 
dress our acknowledgments for that consummate pru- 
dence which defeated all the combinations of a 
sagacious enemy, entangled him in the very snares 
which he had spread before us, and succeeded in 
effecting his utter destruction, without hardly ex- 
posing the lives of our citizens. Immortal thanks 
be to His Supreme Majesty, for sending us such an 
instrument of His bountiful designs ! A gift of that 
value is the best token of the continuance of His 
protection — the most solid encouragement to us to 
sue for new favors. The first which it emboldens us 
humbly to supplicate, as it is the nearer to our throb- 



— 70 — 

bing hearts, is tliat you may long enjoy, General, the 
honors of your grateful country, of which you will 
permit us to ])resent you a pledge in this wreath of 
laurel, the prize of victory, the symbol of immortality, 
The next is a speedy and honorable termination of 
the bloody contest in which we are engaged. No 
one has so efficaciously labored as you. General, for 
the acceleration of that blissful i)eriod. May we 
soon reap the sweetest fruit of your splendid and un- 
interrupted victories ! ' 

"The General, liaviug received the wreath of 
laurel from the apostolic hands of the speaker, made 
this modest and felicitous reply: 

" ' Reverend Sir, I receive with gratitude and 
pleasure the symbolical crown which piety has pre- 
pared. I receive it in the name of the brave men 
who have so effectually seconded my exertions for the 
preservation of their country. They well deserve the 
laurels their country will bestow. 

" ' For myself, to have been instrumental in the 
deliverance of such a country, is the greatest blessing 
that Heaven could confer. That it has been effected 
with so little loss, that so few tears should cloud the 
smiles of our triumph, and not a cypress leaf be in- 
terwoven in tlie wreath which you present, is a source 
of the most exquisite enjoyment. 

" ' I thank you, Reverend Sir, most sincerely, for 
the prayers which you offer up for my happiness. 
May those your patriotism dictates for our beloved 
country be first heard, and may mine for your indi- 
vidual prosperity, as well as that of the congregation 
committed to your care, be favorably received ! The 
prosperity, the wealth, the happiness of this city will 



— 11 — 



then be commensurate with the courage and other 
qualities of its inhabitants.' " 



CHAPTER III. 



THE SAINT LOUIS CATHEDRAL 
OF OUR DAYS. 

In 1850 tlie principal tower of the Cathedral 
collapsed, and it was discovered that notwithstanding 
the solidity with wliich the edifice had been originally 
put up, the walls were becoming insecure. Large 
cracks had made their appearance on the front and 
sides, and in consequence, the upper portion was torn 
down and a new design was suggested by Louis Pilie, 
a city surveyor, and adopted by the wardens. On 
the same occasion the Cathedral was enlarged by the 
addition of the present sanctuary and vestries, and 
brought up to its present size and appearance. The 
interior of the sacred edifice was ornamented with 
beautiful biblical scenes by artists whose names have 
not been handed down to us, but whose marvellous 
delicacy of execution evolved masterpieces that the 
hand of time has effaced. 

The Cathedral, newly repaired, enlarged and 
adorned, was blessed on the 7tli of December, 1851, 
by Archbishop Blanc, assisted by Bishop Chandre, of 
Natchez, and Bishop Portier, of Mobile. 



Some forty years afterwards, although the paint- 
ings remained quite distinct, there were some whose 
colors needed refreshing, while others had become 
antiquated and required to be replaced by newer sub- 
jects more in accordance with the taste and the ideas 
of our time. The church building itself was in need 
of rejiaration; the side galleries, portions of the floor- 
ing, and here and there i)arts of the Avoodwork were 
showing too plainly the marks of decay. 

Archbishop Janssens and Father Mignot (*) were 
pondering what to do when a thunderstorm, on a 
morning of October, 1891, brought about a solution. 
The lightning had struck the main tower of the 
church, and after making a large hole, about three 
feet in diameter, came down an iron rod, thence 
leaped on to the grand organ, demolishing several 
reeds, and after pushing the minute hand of the 
clock over the choir railing, sought the earth through 
a hole bored in the pavement. 

The ladies of the congregation broached a plan 
for raising the necessary money, not only to repair 
the damage done by the lightning, but also to pay 
for the extensive improvements which Father Mignot 
desired so much to make. When funds sufficient to 
begin the work of decoration and of repairs were 



(*) Qnite iuiiocently the author was ou the poiut of neglecting 
to mention the late Father Mignot, but the kindness and 
charity of the beloved departed priest were so graciously 
recalled to him that he hastened to insert the features of 
this generous man, deploring only that his short sojourn 
in New Orleans did not give him the opportunity to echo 
in a more deserving place the vivid veneration in which 
is held, throughout the French quarter, the memory of 
"Good Father Mignot." 




Very Rev. H. Mignot. 



— 74 — 

realized, Futlier Mig-not summoned Mr. Erasmus Hum- 
breclit, an artist wlio liad made his reputation in 
church decoration. A contract was drawn up and 
signed, and for many days the interior of the Cathe- 
dral was a maze of platforms and scaffolding's. Au 
army of workmen were engaged in making the neces- 
sary repairs, but Mr. lliimbrecht reserved for himself 
the most difficult and delicate part of the improve- 
ments. He retouched, repainted and altered some of 
the paintings on the vault and above the lateral 
chapels, and obliterated a few of tlie old pictures, 
replacing- them with subjects of his own creation. 

This artist entirely changed the coloring- of walls 
and friezes, and colonades. For the too glaring- tones 
which prevailed and which offended the artistic eye, 
he substituted friezework and light colors of tender 
hue, mellow gold, pale green and delicate blue, which 
he so skillfully arranged and blended that the inte- 
rior of the church reflects with soft radiance the 
floods of light that pour through the many lateral 
windows. 

One of the striking effects of the artist's skill is 
the altered appearance of the numerous colonades 
which support the lateral galleries and the vaults. 
These columns were round, and had an appearance 
of solidity and massiveness, not in keeping with the 
graceful, airy aspect of the rest of the building. By 
most clever contrast of shading iind Avonderful juxta- 
position of colors, the artist has given the columns 
the apjjearance of being fluted, thus relieving them of 
their solid, ponderous api)earance, and giving- them an 
air of slenderness and grace. 

Finally, a couple of years ago, in 1905, through 



— 75 — 

the solicitude of tbe present rector, Monsignore J. M. 
Laval, the whole exterior of the building- was re- 
cemented and the interior was adorned with three 
rich chandeliers of brass and stations of the cross, 
delicately painted in "terra cotta." 



-^fO^-*- 



CHAPTER IV. 

FOR VISITORS' SAKE. 



CosMOPOLrrAN Character of a Conghegation — The Swiss 
Guard — A Glimpse of the Altars, Paintings and 
Stained Glass Windows — The Abode of Illustri- 
ous Dead. 



There is no place in New Orleans that affords 
better opportunity for studying the cosmopolitanism 
of this city than the Saint Louis Cathedral. Within 
the parish limits live the representatives of more than 
ten nations. Americans, French, English, Irish, 
Italians, Spaniards, Portuguese, Syrians, Slavonians 
and even INLalays and Filipinos come to worship in 
this church. 

In the transactions of daily life, it is hard some- 
times to distinguish them : traffic is the most import- 
ant factor in the unity of a nation made up of differ- 
ent races and languages; but in church every one 
prefers to pray in his mother tongue, and nothing is 
dearer to his heart than the religious ceremonies of 
his mother country performed in a remote land. 

Come in the early morning when the dim light of 



— 76 — 

day gives to tlie solitude of the eljuieli an air of inys- 
ticisin and you will witness the humble and fervent 
X)rayer of tlie sturdy sons of okl Christian countries, 
like Ireland and Slavonia, that suffered and bled for 
the defense of their faith. 

Often unnoticed by the generality as they stand 
in the rear of tlie church, but exciting a peculiar in- 
terest among' keen observers, are the old women that 
gather around the confessionals. They are mostly 
Syrians or Sicilians, and wear the costume of their 
native country. They pray, raising their arms u]>- 
wards in the attitude of the antique statues called 
"Orantes." Some of them spend hours in jtrayer, 
kneeling thus on the pavement, then they make the 
tour of the chiucli and come back to the same i)lace, 
to mutter the same ])rayer. 

Nothing, perhai)s, could give a better idea of this 
cosmopolitanism so characteristic of the " Old Carre" 
than a visit to the parochial school conducted by the 
Ladies of the Sacred Heart, on Saint Ann Street. 
Among the one hundred and fifty children that at- 
tend this school not less than ten nations are repre- 
sented. 

Within the last decade the congregation of the 
Saint Louis Cathedral changed its character. Up to 
this time this church was still considered one of the 
most aristocratic. Tlie elite of the old Creole fam- 
ilies still resided within its limits, and on certain 
feasts there were gatherings in the Saint Louis Cathe- 
dral that could not be witnessed elsewhere. Nothing 
to be compared with such distinguished attendance 
could be seen in our days except on sj)ecial occasions 
when the Archbishop officiates solemnly at the altar. 



— 78 — 

Then the church resumes its air of ancient grandeur, 
and amidst the throngs of people that fill the nave 
and the galleries to tlieir utmost capacity, it does not 
take long to distinguish the last descendants of those 
who once formed the unique element of the congre- 
gation. Nothing is more to be regretted than this 
gradual exodus of the old Creole families from the 
French section of the city. 

Tlie ancient Creoles of Kew Orleans were noted 
the world over for the gallantry and urbanity of the 
men, the exquisite grace and artistic taste of the 
women, their elegant and cultured homes, which 
made the Cathedral Parish a marked center of refine- 
ment and education. The removal of so many of 
these old families to new and more progressive sec- 
tions of the city marks the i)assing away of a typical 
epoch of Kew Orleans life, and the Saint Louis Ca- 
thedral cannot too deeply deplore its abandonment in 
this day by those whose forefathers it sheltered when 
chivalry and romance bloomed in Louisiana. 



There is a man who seems to sum up in himself 
the antiquity and cosmopolitanism of the Saint Louis 
Cathedral ; a man who knows everybody and is known 
by all; a man who for more than twenty years has 
been as much an integral part of the Cathedral as are 
its walls and i)illars. 

Neither time nor the inclemencj^ of the weather 
have caused him to neglect his daily duty; the old 
Cathedral seems to have imparted to him something 
of its immutability. 

This man, humble and meek, is, or rather, will 




Photo B. de Villentroy. 

The Swiss Guard in Full Regalia. 



mark the end of an epoch. He is the Swiss guard, 
and very likely will be the last of the long series of 
the Swiss guards who, from the time of the very 
foundation of the church, i)receded the religious pro- 
cessions, presenting a unique picture, with their 
cocked hats and red coats gorgeously ornamented 
with gold stripes. 

Do not think him either haughty or surly, he is 
merely a man of duty, a man who does not stop to 
parley the orders he is giv^en. Make any inquiries 
about the Cathedral and he will never be at a loss to 
answer, but do not ask him how it happened to him 
to don a military costume of the middle ages and 
handle a halberd. He was born for it; here ends his 
whole psychology. 



The Saint Louis Cathedral is an historical land- 
mark, but possesses none of these artistic characters 
or treasures that makes some European churches so 
famous all over the world. Although one hundred and 
fifteen years have elapsed since its erection, not an 
improvement made nor a donation received could 
appeal to the interest of a thorough connaisseur. 

This church, however, is appropriately furnished 
and tastefully decorated. When the visitors cross 
its threshold and walk doAvn the aisle to the choir 
railing, they find themselves in front of the high 
altar. It is a splendid piece of work imported from 
Belgiuui. The heavy table of white marble is sup- 
ported by four caryatid angels and the frieze that 
adorns the upper part of the altar on which are 
placed the candlesticks has the slightness and deli- 



- 81 — 

cacy of embroidery. The tabernacle holds the mid- 
dle of a rich canopy that is crowned by three statues 
personifying- Faith, Hope and Charity. The statues 
on either side of the main altar are those of Saint 
Peter and Saint Paul. 

The side altar erected near the pulpit is dedi- 
cated to St. Francis of Assisium, whose picture is seen 
above, hung on the wall. The canopy of the altar 
supports a group representing the Apparition of Our 
Lord to the Blessed Marguerite Marie Alacoque which 
occurred in Paray le Monial (France) in the second 
part of the 17th century. Often people designate 
this altar after the Sacred Heart. 

The other side altar is dedicated to the Virgin 
Mary under the title of Immaculate Concei^tion. 
The rocks and panoramic view that cover the back 
ground of the chapel represent the famous shrine of 
Lourdes. There is seen a reproduction of one of the 
eighteen apparitions of the Virgin to a young girl 
named Bernadette Soubirous. It occurred in 1858, 
and since the place has gained a world wide fame. 
Pilgrims by hundreds of thousands visit it yearly 
and cures take place that give plain evidence of their 
supernatural character. The shrine of Lourdes is 
situated along a torrent and surrounded by high 
mountains that make of this spot one of the most 
picturesque in France. 



Daylight illuminates the interior of the Cathe- 
dral through a double row of stained glass windows 
pierced on each side wall. Here is the list of the 
pictures that adorn the lower windows : commencing 



— 82 — 

at the front door of tbe church and going down the 
aisle towards the altar of Our Lady of Lourdes are 
representations of 

Saint Dominic, born in Spain in 1170, died in 
1221 ; he founded the Order of the Preaching Friars 
at Toulouse in 1215. His historians say that preced- 
ing his birth, his mother, whilst she was with child, 
dreamed that she brought forth a whelp which car- 
ried in its mouth a burning torch, with which it set 
the whole world in fire. 

Saint Charles Borromeo was born in 1538, and 
died in 1584. He became archbishop of Milan and 
is known as a great reformer of the ecclesiastical 
discipline. 

Saint Catherine died a martyr to the faith by 
the order of the Emperor Maximinus, in the fourth 
century. 

Our Lady of the Holy Rosary is a representation 
of the Virgin as patroness of a religious association 
established in 1481 by Sixtus IV to ward ofP by the 
recitation of the Eosary the evils that threatened 
Christendom at the hands of the Turks. 

Saint Vincent de Paul, a French priest who 
founded the Priests of the Mission known as the 
Lazarist Fathers and the Congregation of the 
Daughters of Charity known as Sisters of Saint 
Vincent de Paul — 157G-1C60. 

Saint Ann (over the side porch), mother of the 
Virgin Mary. 

On the opposite are the following pictures be- 
ginning with the nearest to the main entrance: 

Saint Peter, the Prince of the Apostles and the 




Photo B. de V^illentroy. 

Altar of Our Lady of Lourdes. 



— 81 — 

first bishoj) of Eome where he suffered crucifixion in 
the year 05 A. ]). 

Saint Patriclc, the Apostle of Irehmd, lived in 
the fifth centniy. 

The Holy Family, the Infant Jesus, the Virgin 
Mary his mother and Saint Joseph, his foster father. 

The Sacred Heart of Jesits. a picture of our Lord 
as He appeared to the Blessed Marguerite Marie 
Alacoque, a nun of the Order of the Visitation, 1647- 
1690. 

Saint Francis of Assislum, founder of the Friars 
Minors, known as Franciscans, 1208. 

Saint Louis, 1226-1270. A king of France, led 
the eighth crusade in Holy Land. This Cathedral 
is named after hirn, and the diocese of New Orleans 
is idaced under his patronage. 



The interior of the Saint Louis Cathedral is de- 
corated with symbolical and historic pictures of 
• great interest. 

The principal pictures are : The very large-sized 
tableau, painted on the wall just above the main 
altar, representing Saint Louis, announcing the 
Crusade. There are many figures in this immense 
grouping, all of heroic size. 

The next tableau that challenges admiration is 
painted on the vault exactly over the centre of the 
main aisle, and is entitled " Saint Peter receiving the 
Shepherd's Staff from Our Lord." 

At stated distance from that beautiful picture 
are painted, in medallion, the four evangelists. Saint 
John, Saint Mark, Saint Luke and Saint Matthew. 




Photo C. M. C. 



Shiunk of Ouu Lapy of Louudes. 



— 86 — 

Between each of the twelve side arches there is the 
portrait of oue of the apostles. 

Over the choir there is a very spirited represen- 
tation of the archangel ^lichael, and at the other 
extremity, near the sanctuary, is " the Holy Family." 

The vault of the sanctuary has a picture repre- 
senting ''The Sacrifice of the Divine Lamb." 

Symbolical flgures of the old and the new testa- 
ments are distributed, artistically in the arched vault. 

The spaces over the lateral chapels are also very 
beautifully decorated. Over the altar of the Sacred 
Heart and of Saint Francis of Assisi (right aisle) 
there is a pathetic picture representing " The Agony 
of Our Lord." Christ is shown, kneeling in the 
Garden of Olives. His eyes are suffused with tears ; 
the sweat of agony is ui)on his suffering face. In 
front of Him stands an angel bearing- a cross, while 
directly over Christ, and enclosed within a golden 
halo, there effulges the " chalice of bitterness " 
which the Son of God has to drain to the very last 
drop. 

Over the altar of ISTotre Dame de Lourdes (Our 
Lady of Lourdes) the "Annunciation " is depicted 
with true artistic effect and coloring. The Virgin 
Mary and the Angel Gabriel are painted in most 
natural pose and attitude. This picture, known to 
all scholars, is most beautifully executed, and tlie 
angel's lips seem about to formulate the respectful 
salutation: "Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus te- 
cum, benedicta tu in mulieribus, etc." 

The work which has called forth the greatest 
admiration, is the allegorical tableau, just above tlje 
organ. This beautiful painting represents Saint 




Photo E. Claudel. 



Interior of the Cathedral. 



Cecilia, the patron saint of music. She seems to be 
floating- on a canopy of clouds, around and above her 
are a number of angelic figures, as it were the fleecy 
throne upon which Saint Cecilia sits. Below the 
l)ainting there is a large scroll, ornamental, bearing 
in French an inscription which, translated, means : 
" Sing the praises of the Lord on reed and on string 
instruments." 



The Saint Louis Cathedral, a temple of the Living 
God is at the same time the abode of illustrious dead. 
Under the flagstones of its sanctuary rest grand 
signors of the Old Regime and many of the prelates 
that occupied the glorious See of New Orleans. 

On the epistle side, under the Chapel of the 
Sacred Heart was buried l^on Andres Almonester y 
Roxas, founder of the Cathedral and the famous 
Father Antonio de Sedella, its first rector. 

On the other side, under the Altar of Our Lady 
of Lourdes, rest three illustrious Chevaliers. Their 
tomb is marked by a large marble flag stone that 
bears their coat of arms and the following inscription : 



— 89 — 



t 



ICI REPOSENT 

Francois Philippe de Map.igny de Mandeville, 

Chevalier de I'Ordre Boyal et MUitaire de Saint Louis tt Major de 
Place a la Nouvelle-Orleans, ne a Bayeiix en Normaudie, mort 
dans cette ville le lev Novemhre 17:28. 

Antoine Philippe de Makigny de Maxdeville, 

Chevalier de VOrdre Boyal et MUitaire de Saint Louis et Capitaine 
d'Infanterie au service de France, ne a la Mobile le 28 Fevrier 
1122, mort a la Nouvelle-Orleans le 6 Novemhre 1779. 

Pierre Philippe de Marigny de Mandeville, 

Chevalier de VOrdre Royal et MUitaire de Saint Louis, Capitaine 
d'' Infanterie sous le Gouvernement Espagnol, ne dans cette ville 
le 13 Juin 1757, et mort le 11 Mai 1800. 

The same inscription is translated in English as 
follows : 

HERE REST 

FRANgois Philippe de Mauigny de Mandeville, 

A Knight of the Royal and Military Order of Saint Louis, and Port 
Commandant at New Orleans, horn at Bayeux, in Normandy, 
died in this city November 1, 17~S. 

Antoine Philippe de Marigny de Mandeville, 

A Knight of the Royal and Military Order of Saint Louis, and Cap- 
tain of Infantry in the service of France, horn at Mobile Feb- 
ruary 28, 1772, died at New Orleans November 6, 1779. 

Pierre Philippe de Marigny de Mandeville, 

A Knight of the Royal and Military Order of Saint Louid, Captain 
of Infantry under the Spanish Government, born in this city 
on June 13, 1757, and died on the 11th of May, 1800. 



— 90 — 

Others very likely have been buried side by side 
with these illustrious dead, but their names are 
unknown. Henry C. Castellanos says " that during 
the repairs of the Cathedral in 1850 the masons were 
compelled to disinter the remains of the dead buried 
at the foot of the Altar of Saint Francis, whence 
they were carried in wheelbarrows to the cart destined 
to convey them to the cemetery. Among- these relics 
were the bones of Pere Antoiue now resting in the 
Priest's tomb in the Old Saint Louis Cemetery. 

Under that new part of the Cathedral added in 
1850 and covered now by the sanctuary and the 
sacristies, eight mortuary rooms were constructed, 
two at the foot of the high altar and two in each 
sacristy. Under the sanctuary, on the epistle side, 
was laid to rest the body of the sainted Archbishop 
Janssens, who died in 1897. The tomb was opened 
in May, 1908, and the casket found in perfect state 
of preservation. 

On the gospel side of the sanctuary was buried 
the late Archbishop Chapelle, who died a victim of 
the yellow fever, the 9th of August, 1905. The same 
vault was previously occupied by the remains of 
Bishop Blanc, who died in 1860. 

The tombs built under the sacristy near the 
Altar of Saint Francis have never been used. In the 
crypt under the floor of the second sacristy, two 
vaults out of six are closed. One contains the remains 
of Father Duquesnay, who died in 1858. In the other 
vault has been lately buried Eight Reverend Gustave 
Eouxel, Auxiliary bishop of Kew Orleans. He died 
in March, 1908, and is the last of the prelates in- 
terred in the Saint Louis Cathedral. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE SAINT LOUIS CATHEDRAL ARCHIVES. 



How THK Rkcords Wkre Handed Down— Oldest Entries 
— Terrible Stories in a Few Lines— Side Lights on 
Civil and Religious Lifk of Old. 



^N^otbing seems to impress the visitor more than 
a peep at the old registers that sleep on the shelves 
of the Cathedral Archives. The covers darkened and 
mangled, the pages yellow and crumbling, the ink 
faded by time, tell more eloquently than words of 
the years that have glided away by scores, since the 
first entry was written in the musty records. 

The Saint Louis Cathedral, and the Ursuline 
Convent, hide their age under a new coat of cement ; 
the decaying tombs of the Old Saiut Louis Cemetery 
sink slowly into the soft soil amidst tall herbs and 
dense shrubbery; the venerable registers of the 
Cathedral Archives alone bear openly the fateful 
touch of time. They are like remains freshly removed 
from the common tomb of the past generation. One 
cannot look upon them without thinking of those, 
who for two centuries trod the soil upon which we 
live, and who have long since passed away, leaving 
only a name slowly but surely fading with the years. 

These i)recious records for a long time had their 
liome in a small and dark room, situated on the 
ground floor of the St. Louis Cathedral Presbytery, 
in which the light i)enetrated through an iron barred 
window set quite low, and allowing the passerby to 



— 92 — 

catcli a glimpse of its interior furnished with a couple 
of chairs, a table and rows ni)on rows of shelves filled 
with volumes bearing the venerable stamp of age. 

A custodian takes care of these archives. ''In 
fact," wrote James Augustin, '• there always lias been 
a quiet, mild mannered, unobtrusive, polite and 
obliging middle-aged gentleman in charge of these 
precious records. There have been changes of 
individuals, but not of manners, and when one of the 
venerable guardians goes to his eternal rest another 
takes his i)lace, and placidly assumes the duties of 
the office." 

The names of three kee])ers of these archives 
are still particularly remembered ; they are Messrs. 
Dubuc, Geo. De Jaham and Henry Ducatel. Mr. 
Dubuc was custodian so loug ago that no one can 
exactly remember the time when he took possession 
of his charge. Geo. De Jaluim, his successor, came 
on duty when the present generation was receiving 
baptism at the hands of Rev. Father Mignot ; he 
remained in office until his death in 1893. Henry 
Ducatel, who was offered the ])]ace left vacant by 
Mr. De Jaham, had been baptized by the famous 
"Pere Antoine." Henry Ducatel spent ten years of 
his youth at Paris in the College of Louis le Grand; 
then he returned to his country and engaged in busi- 
ness. He served through the Civil War as captain of 
artillery in the Gardes d'Orleans. 

After Mr. Ducatel's death the position held 
for a while by a young man, was then given by Father 
Mignot to Mr. J. C. Kenaud, the present incumbent. 

The Saiut Louis Cathedral Archives number at 
present 131 registers of different sizes and bindings. 




Photo C. M. C. 

The Cathedral Archives and Their Custodian. 



— 94 — 

Seventy are consecrated to tlie white people, of 
which forty are records of baptisms, twenty of mar- 
riages and ten of burials. 

Forty-one registers are devoted to the colored 
people, of w^hich thirty record baptisms and tive 
marriages. The books containing the burials of the 
colored people have not yet been properly classified, 
and lie amidst a heap of yellow and dusty papers re- 
lating to the administration of the Trustees of the 
Cathedral. 

Though very numerous, the collection is not 
complete; some of the registers are missing and 
pages of others for various motives have been 
shrewdly torn off, but these constitute exceptions, 
and if we consider the lapse of time and the inev- 
itable havoc it plfiys with everything, it must be 
acknowledged that the unity of the Cathedral archives 
has been wonderfully preserved, and the interest that 
arises from a close perusal of them is altogether 
unique and vividly interesting. 



One of the oldest registers of the Archives of 
the Saint Louis Cathedral is in Paris among the 
colonial pa|)ers of the French ISTavy. I could not 
learn how it found its way there. A copy of it was 
ordered for the Historical Society of Louisiana by 
Professor Alcee Fortier, and can be found in the Tu- 
lane University Library. It opens with these words: 
•' Register of those who died at the Old Fort of Biloxi 
during the adinistration of IMr. Danion, from the 8th 
of August, 1720, to the 4th of Setempber, 1722." 

Then follow these different extracts : 



— 95 - 

1. Extract from the registers of the Rev. Father 
DeViaudec, Capuchin and Missionary from theChapi- 
toulas to the Pointe Coupee. 

2. Extract from the baptism registers of the 
Parish of Able Descas from May, 1723, to May, 1724. 

3. Baptisms, marriages and burials held in the 
Chapel of the Fort of Chartres, Diocese of Quebec. 

This precious register ends with the entries of 
burials for Kew Orleans from 1720 to 1734, but with 
many intermissions. Most of these ceremonies were 
performed by Fathers Eaphael, Matthias de Sedan, 
Pierre, Philippe and Hyacinthe. Some of these en- 
tries are most eloquent in their brevity and make us 
think of the hardships and dangers of the early 
colonists of Louisiana. Here is one of them : 

"In the year 1723, there was massacred, by the 
savages on the coast of Florida, a man named Cesar 
Soulard, whose fate we have heard from reliable wit- 
nesses." Here indeed the dreadful story of this mas- 
sacre is told in a few lines. 



The register of the Saint Louis Cathedral 
Archiv^es that contains the oldest entries is not the 
original, but a copy written by Father Antoine 
himself to replace the original registry, which AA^as 
already " in a very bad condition," as Pere Antoine 
testifies. This precious copy opens under this heading : 

" First register of marriages of the Saint Louis 
Parish Church." 

Then follows: 

" First register of marriages of the Saint Louis 
Parish of New Orleans, containing 376 acts of mar- 



riages of white persons, 11 marriages of negroes, 
and three acts of abjuration of heresy. Said register 
begins the first day of the month of July of the year 
1720 and ends the fourth day of the month of De- 
cember of the year 1730," 

The first entry is as follows : " Marriages of the 
Province of Louisiana. 

" No. 1. The year 1720 and the first of July, a 
publication of the names having been made at the 
parochial mass on the 16th of June, and dispensation 
for the two others having been granted, no impediment 
having been found between Peter Sinton, a native 
of Chatelleraux, son of Mr. Adrien Sinton and 
Fran^oise Ressay, his father and mother, and Nicole 
Daucune, native of Chalons in Champagne, daughter 
of Philip Daucune and Dame Caffet, her father and 
mother, I, undersigned, missionary and acting pastor 
in New Orleans, have received their mutual consent 
and given the nuptial blessing ordered by the Holy 
Church, in i^reseuce of John Gero and Saint George, 
who have signed with me. 

"Father F. Prothais Boyer, 

"Missionary, Recolet. 
" Sainton. 
" Nicole Daucune." 



The first act of abjuration of heresy is as follows: 
" In the year 1726, on the 11th of Januarj^, John 
Betzman of the Parish des Allemands, has made 
in my hands abjuration of the Calvinist heresy in 
which he was born and reared, in presence of two 
Germans, who, having said that they did not know 



— 97 — 

how to sign their names, have made their ordinary 
mark. In testimony of which I sign : 

" F. Raphakl, 
"Capuchin Priest aud Vicar General. 



In fact, the oldest original register of the Saint 
Louis Cathedral Archives is but the third of the col- 
lection — the first being at Paris and the second only 
a copy of the original. 

This precious record, begun on the 1st of Jan- 
uary, 1731, and finished on the 27th of December, 1733, 
opens with these words : 

"The present register containing ninety-two 
sheets, this one not included, has been paraphed by 
us, Fran§ois Fleuviau, King Counsellor and Attorney 
General of the Superior Council of the Province of 
Louisiana, to be used by the rector of New Orleans 
to record successively and without interruption the 
baptisms, marriages and burials which will be per- 
formed in the said parish according to the decree of 

1667. 

" New Orleans, this 30th December, 1730. 

" F. Fleuviau." 

The first entry of baptism reads as follows : "In 
the year 1731, the 1st of January, at a quarter past 
twelve o'clock at night, Catherine de P^rier was born, 
legitimate child of Perier Cenier, Chevalier of the 
Military Order of Saint Louis, Captain of Frigate 
and Commander General of the Province of Louisiana, 
aud Dame Catherine Le Chibelier, her father and 
mother; and was baptized in the same hour. The 
godfather was Mr. Guillaume Nicolas Lange, who has 



— 98 — 

signed these presents on the day and year above 

mentioned. 

" Perier, 

" F. Raphael, 
" Priest Capuchin, Vicar General. 
" Lange." 

Tlie first record of marriage contained in the 
same register reads as follows: 

"In the year 1731, the 10th of January, after 
having published three times at the sermon of the 
parochial mass the j)romise of marriage between 
John Nauere, son of Bernard Nauere and of Jeanne 
Larode, his father and mother, native of Saint 
Nicholas of the City of Plaisance in the bishop- 
ric of Tarbes in Gascogne, widower of Louise Bri- 
don, deceased in this parish, — and Th^rese Maisonet, 
daughter of Antoine Maisonet and of Madeleine 
Malbe, her father and mother, native of the parish 
of Saint Nicholas des Champs, Archbishopric of 
Paris, widow of Louis Mirant, deceased at Natchez, 
having not found any impediment to the said marriage, 
I, Capuchin Priest, Missionary Apostolic at New Or- 
leans, have received their mutual consent and given 
the nuptial blessing according to the rites of the 
Church in the presence of the undersigned witnesses, 
to-wit: Nicholas Dominique Eousseau, Pierre Mar- 
tineau, Jean Daniel, who have signed with me. 

" Jean Nau^ke, 
" Th6uese Maisonet, 
" Jean Daniel Rousseau, 
" Pierue Martinet, 
" F. Raphael, 
" Capuchin Priest, Vicar General." 



— 99 — 

The third sectiou of the same old register contains 
the burial records, sind the first entry reads as follows: 

" In the 3'ear 1731 on the 11th of Jauuary, I, un- 
dersigned Capuchin Priest, Apostolic Missionary at 
Kew Orleans, have buried in the cemetery of this 
parish with the ordinary ceremonies of the Church, 
the corpse of the deceased, Etienne Duchesne, a cap- 
tain of the port, who died on the 10th of January, 
having received the sacraments of the church. In 
testimony of which I sign. 

" Father Pierre, 
" Priest C.ipuchiu, Apostolic Missiouarj'." 



The slaves were often baptized by groups of ten, 
fifteen and even twenty. 

Then, for the sake of brevity, the priest used to 
write in three columns. In the first were the names 
of the newly baptized, in the second the names of 
their masters and in the third the names of the god- 
fathers and godmothers. Thus on page 37 occurs : 

"In the year 1733 and the 4th of March, I ad- 
ministered the baptism of the catechumens with the 
ordinary ceremony of the Church to the adult negroes 
and negresses hereafter named: 



2^^ames of the 


Their 


Godfathers and 


Baptized. 


Masters. 


Godmothers. 


Michel 


Mr. Dupout 


H. Marquier 


Etienue 


Lempileur 


E. Janot 


FraiiQois 


Alexandre 


Larche 


John Baptist 


Eoy 


Marquis 


Charles 


Desiatte 


C. Marquet 


. Dominique 


Nicholas 


Buuel Jonior 


Etc. 


Etc. 


Etc. 



— 100 - 

" In witness thereof 1 sig^ned, this day and 

month as above. 

" Raphael, 

"Vicar General, Rector. 



On one of the last pages of the same register 
there is pasted a very interesting document which 
alludes to the terrible massacre by the Katchez 
Indians of the white settlers, at " Terre Blanche," in 
December, 1729. 

This act is written in form of an affidavit and is 
signed by Guebo and Cantrelle. These were the names 
of the two only survivors of the massacre. Guebo 
and Cantrelle, after escaping from the horrible fate 
of their unfortunate fellow settlers, made their way 
to New Orleans, reaching the city after a very long 
and tedious journey. They had saved from the fury of 
the Indians a child of four months, a boy, whom 
they managed to bring alive to New Orleans, the litte 
waif's life having been preserved by the providential 
offer of a friendly squaw, who suckled the infant 
during the whole of the perilous journey. 

Some time after the men had reached the city, 
they were interviewed by the ecclesiastical authorities 
for the ijurpose of ascertaining if the child had been 
baptized. Guebo and Cantrelle answered affirma- 
tively, but a formal declaration was exacted, drafted 
in French by Guebo, signed by him and Cantrelle, and 
placed among the records of the Church. 

The orthography of this old document is primitive, 
and as an historical curiosity deserves to be copied 
literally. It reads as follows : 



—.101 — 

" Nous sousnignes hahittans rechappes du massacre 
des Natchez ; certiffions a tous, quHl appartiendra, quHl 
aeste Baptise and. Lieu Le Jils de monsieur des Noyers, 
aide major des trouppes des Natchez et directeur de la 
concession de la terre Blanche, et de Madame Angelique 
Charisson, les pere et mdre, Nez le 9 aout 1729 et Bap- 
tise le 10 dud. mois par le Reverend Pere Philibert capu- 
cin; et que les Parrin et marreine estoient Monsieur Des 
Ursins de la loire, concessionnaire aud. Lieu, et Madlle 
Des Noyers ; Et que led. Enfant fut nomme Antoine 
Laurent des Noyers. 

" En foy de quoy Nous avons donnele present pour 
Certificat attend u que tous les Papier s Et toiis les Effets 
de tout le monde ont pery dans led. massacre, a la Nou- 
velle Orleans ce 10 fevrier 1733. 

''GUEBO, CANTRELLE.'' 

Freely translated, this affidavit menns: 

" That we, the undersigned colonists, escaped from 
the massacre by the Natchez Tribe, certify that the son 
of Mr. Des Noyers, aide- Major of troops at Natchez and 
director of the concession {or reservation) of the " Terre 
Blanche ;''^ and of Mme. Angelique Charison, his father 
and mother, was born on the dth day of August, 1729, and 
was christened on the lOth day of that month by the Rev. 
Father Philibert, Capuchin ; and that the godfather and 
godmother icere Mr. Des Ursins de la Loire and 
Madame Des Noyers ; and that said child 2cas named 
Antoine Laurent Des Noyers. In faith whereof we have 
given these presents as a certificate, because all the 
papers and effects of all the people at Natchez were lost 
in the massacre. 

^'■New Orleans, \Oth February, 1733." 



— 102 — 

Still more interesting- than the baptisms or mor- 
tuarj'- registers is the book containing the minutes of 
tlie meetings held by the Church Wardens. 

These reports run from November, 1738, to 
March, 1833. Among other subjects of minor im- 
portance they relate the famous suit of the Wardens 
against Abbe Walsh and the long discussion raised 
by the City Council about the ownership of the 
cemetery. 

The monthly reports of the expenses of the 
Church are of a peculiar interest, as they give an idea 
of the importance of the Saint Louis Cathedral, at 
this time the only parish church of the city. There 
is for instance the report of January, 1825 : 

jYawics of the Persons of fhe Clergy of the Saint Louis Church 

of New Orleans and of the Employees of the Said 

Church, fVifh Their Bespective Salary : 

Per Mouth 

The Rev. Father Antoiiie de Sedella, rector $70 00 

Mr. I'Abbe Moui, curate and sacrist 55 00 

Mr. I'Abbe Michaud. curate 50 00 

Mr. I'Abbe Borgiia (iu France or Europe) 50 00 

Mr. I'Abbe Gallagher, assistant to the clergy 30 00 

Mr. Rutin Fernandez, first chorister 35 00 

Mr. M. Landuu, chorister and music master 30 00 

Mr. Jean Ximeues, chorister 25 00 

Mr. Castro Gonzales, sub-deacon and chorister 20 00 

Mr. Christoval Rodriguez, sacristan 26 50 

Ant. Munoz, altar boy 20 00 

Aut. Catoir, altar boy 10 00 

Jacques Astin, altar boy 10 00 

Philosfene Portail, altar boy 10 00 

Jean Mazerat, altar boy 10 00 

Pierre Maspero, altar boy 10 00 

Mr. l'Abb6 Portier, teacher of the school of thirty boys. 100 GO 

Mr. Quimper, teacher of the school of twenty little girls. 52 00 



— 103 — 

Mr. J. B. Labatnt, treasurer of the corporatiou, 

five per ceut of commission 

Mr. Aut. Criizat, collector of the corporation, 

five per cent of commission 

Mr. E. Ronx, grave digger 

Mr. Lonis Laporte, organist 30 00 

A negro who blows the organ 3 00 

Per Year 

Mr. C. Bonk, lute maker 100 00 

Hyacintbe Castor, secretary to the wardens 200 00 

Per Month 

Lucien Vignaud, clock maker 15 00 

Jean Castro, beadle and janitor 20 00 

Mme. Widow Fernandez, laundress 11 00 

Other records of the book enlighten us upon the 
conditions of the city at this time. 

For instance, this letter concerning a night watch- 
man to be posted on the roof of the church, whose 
duty it would be to ring the alarm bell in case of fire. 

" To the Administrators of the Saint Louis Church 

of New Orleans : 

" Several attempts having been made to burn 
down the city, a committee of citizens called on me 
and begged me to take the necessary measures to pre- 
vent any further attempt. Among the means which 
seemed to them the most convenient is the appoint- 
ment of a watchman during the night on the platform 
of the church. He will be charged to ring the bells 
at the first sight of a fire, and to light a beacon to 
indicate its direction. 

"If you accede to this request I will have a wicket 
pierced in the wall of the church tower the nearest 

to the City Hall. 

" Trudeau, 
" Recorder and Acting Mayor. 



— 104 — 

The Wardens favored the idea and thenceforth 
a watchman stood on the platform of the church and 
kept a sharp lookout on any glare that could ma- 
terialize into a lire. 

The above quotations are but a few of the many 
pages of the book that prove interesting. Details 
trifling in themselves are of considerable importance 
when we look upon them as facts illustrative of the 
life and manners of the old colonial days in Louisiana. 

It is chiefly in this respect that a close perusal 
of the archives of the Saint Louis Cathedral is of the 
highest importance to those who wish to get or give, 
not a romantic, but a true, real and vivid picture of 
the past. 

These registers constitute a precious mine of 
information, and too much care cannot be taken to 
protect and preserve them against the ravages of time 
or the depredations of men. 

The present incumbent of the rectorship of the 
Cathedral, Right Rev. J. M. Laval, understood fully 
this necessity, and under his care the records of old, 
which were slumbering openly on dusty shelves, have 
been classified and locked up in a large and secure 
safe. 

Every morning the faithful custodian turns the 
heavy doors on their hinges and the light of day 
throws a lively touch of color on those venerable 
registers that speak of birth and marringe and death 
as if they were the only data of human life. 



PART III. 

AROUND 
THE CATHEDRAL. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE OLD SAINr LOUIS CEMirPERY. 



SuccESSiVK Locations of the Eaklikst Cemetery ov New 
Ori.eaxs — Inscriptions of Historical Interest — 
Lessons on Life Learned from the Dead. 



The old Saint Louis Cemetery is the natural out- 
growth of the Saint Louis Cathedral and stands with 
it among- the oldest and most interesting landmarks 
of the historical city of New Orleans. 

There is nothing gorgeous in its inclosure, no 
carefully tended lawns, no level stretches of green, 
no pebbled alleys or flowers in perennial blossoms. 

Everywhere Time has left its wasting mark and 
whoever saunters within its superannuated walls 
falls a victim to the mystic silence which begets the 
memories of the past. 

Many writers and commentators have endeavored 
to trace the history of the Saint Louis Cemetery 
back to its origin, but lack of documentary evidence 
has given rise to various opinions as to its date of 
foundation, original location and dimensions. 

Dr. Erasmus Fenner, in his " Southern Medical 
Reports," published in 1850, seems to advocate the 
most plausible theory on this subject. "In the 
earliest days of the city," says the Doctor, "the 
cemetery was situated in the rear of the Cathedral, 
near the ' Place d'Armes.' But the number of build- 
ings, increasing with the population, gradually gained 



— 108 — 

more aiul more ground, and the cemetery was moved 
to another location mncli further in the rear of the 
city. Even now, it is again inclosed within the walls 
of this ever-g-rowing- town, and the time is not distant 
Avhen the dead shall have to give place to the living." 

This hypothesis on the Urst location of the old 
Saint Louis Cemetery is confirmed and supplemented 
by a document Avhich determines, if not the exact loca- 
tion, at least the successive removals of the cemetery. 

This document dates back to 1820, and is based 
upon a discussion between the ecclesiastic and civil 
authorities. 

At this time the Trustees of the Cathedral were 
ordered by the City Council to remove the Catholic 
Cemetery, because it was situated too near the resi- 
dential section and might prove a menace to public 
health. The Trustees then sought another location, 
but no suitable one could be found, and the matter 
dragged until 1823, when the order was renewed in 
more severe terms, judging- from the answer of these 
worthy Wardens. 

Being accused of bad will and the intention to 
evade the laws enacted for the i)ublic walfare, they 
presented their defense in three long* pages tilled 
with assurance and cutting irony. The following is 
an extract from the whole, written in the i»onipous 
style characteristic of those days : 

"The Corporation of the Trustees Administrators 
of the property of the Saint Louis Catholic Church, 
being fully convinced that the first authority in the 
State cannot be inspired by other principles than 
those that concern public walfare, welcomes the com- 
ing of the time when it can clear itself of the unjust 



— 109 — 

imputation made against it by a few individuals, and 
submits to the Legislature the reasons of fact and 
law which prevented it from complying with the city 
ordinances relating hereto." 

The petitioners cite the rights of the church on 
the matter and conclude as follows : 

" By said documents, we find the Superior Council 
under the French Government, the Cabildo under 
the Spanish domination, and consequently the City 
Council which has succeeded them, have been obliged 
and are to provide a cemetery for the burial of the 
Catholics. The ground originally set aside for this 
purpose was given up for another tract of land 
between Saint Peter and Toulouse streets. The 
Church made use of it up to 1788, when the Cabildo 
ordered the removal of this cemetery to its present 
location. And we read in an act dated November 14th, 
1800, that the said Cabildo has set apart this place 
out of the lands belonging to the city and promised 
to have it fenced and filled out of its own funds, be- 
cause, having deprived the Church of its cemetery, it 
was its duty to fully indemnify it. 

'' This brief exposition of the most essential facts 
shows that the accusation made against the Trustees 
in not removing the cemetery really falls upon the 
City Council. 

" To this powerful array of facts we will add as 
concisely as possible the law on the subject: ' There 
is a principle acknowledged by all the civilized 
nations of the earth, which is the basis of all civil 
contracts and the foundation of our Constitution, 
viz: That no one can be deprived of his property 
without a full compensation. This universally re- 



— 110 — 

spected principle becomes still more binding' when 
applied to a discussion involving the ownership 
of public property destined to the most sacred use.' 

"Being- convinced that the Legislature will adopt 
some measure for the removal of the cemetery from 
its present location, the Trustees cannot recommend 
with sufficient force that the law passed for that 
purpose impose on the City Council the obligation of 
resi)ecting the place where rest the ashes of our rela- 
tives, friends and fellow-citizens by preserving it 
forever as a cemetery. Scandalous would it be if 
some day would witness the sale of that sacred 
ground which even the most barbarous nations hold 
in great veneration." 

The following gentlemen, Trustees of the Saint 
Louis Cathedral, signed the petition: G. B. Labatut, 
L. Cavalier, K. Cauve, Marin Argote, Simon Cucullu, 
P. Eousseau, F. Duplessis, X Girod, C. L. Blache, 
H. Landreaux and J. B. Wiltz. 

The historical problem, therefore, concerning the 
original foundation and site of the Old Saint Louis 
Cemetery, resolves itself thus: 

The ground for the Catholic Cemetery was first 
given by the French Government to the Saint Louis 
Parochial Church when New Orleans Avas founded in 
1718, and the gift was confirmed "de jure et facto" 
by the Spanish Cabildo. 

The cemetery was originally situated in the rear 
of the chnrch as w^as the common custom in those 
days. But in 1743, the city, having grown consider- 
ably, the cemetery was removed and transferred near 
the city's ramparts, between Saint Peter and Tou- 
louse streets. Finally, in 1788, and for the same 



— Ill - 

reason, the Spanish Cabildo had it removed a little 
further, to its present location. 

According- to a certain tradition, the "Old Saint 
Louis Cemetery" originally extended as far as Earn- 
part street, the pyramidal monument which now 
stands at its entrance being then about in the middle 
of the site. Later, the burial ground was encroached 
upon and the tombs on the border were leveled and 
covered by Basin street. This is confirmed by a 
map preserved in the City Museum, as also by 
recent excavations made in the middle of Basin 
street, which brought to light quantities of human 
bones. Therefore, it is beyond doubt that the 
Catholic Cemetery, which was transferred in 1788 to 
the other side of the city's ramparts, now known 
as Eampart street, originally extended to these 
ramparts and included the adjoining ground now 
covered by Basin street. 

Later on, a similar encroachment happened on 
the other side of the cemetery, as it is substantiated 
by the following inscription: 

Here Lie 

The Remains of Skvehal of the Family of 

Robert Layton, 

of This City, 

The Whole Being Removed to This Place on December 10th, 1838, 

in Consequence of the Opening of TrSme Street 

by the City Juthorities. 

As the Old - Saint Louis Cemetery is still open 
to burials, it follows that after many discussions and 
appeals, the Trustees of the Saint Louis Cathedral 



— 112- 

finally had the best of the question brought up by 
the City Council in 1820, and also in 1823, asking for 
a removal of the cemetery to a further location. 
Since that time the question has often been agitated, 
but it now involves more cemeteries than this, the 
mother of burying grounds in New Orleans, for the 
city has extended miles and miles beyond the ancient 
boundaries, and cemetery after cemetery has been 
encroached upon and surrounded by the homes of the 
living. Public opinion is respected by law, the 
common sentiment being that the graves of the loved 
and lost must not be disturbed. 

In the Old Saint Louis Cemetery, it is true, the 
dead lie so close together that there is almost no room 
for the erection of another tomb ; but the cemetery 
opens its vaults to those who are the direct heirs of 
the soil, and the oldest families of the "vieux carre" 
still bring hither their dead to place beside the re- 
mains of their ancestors. 



The Old Saint Louis Cemetery deserves more 
than a passing notice. No other spot in New Orleans 
so recalls the past with all its history, chivalry, sen- 
timent and romance. It is one hnndred and twenty 
years since it has been ojien to burials; during that 
time funeral processions have daily crossed its thresh- 
old, conveying thither the dead of all ages and of 
all countries. 

Walk along the tortuous alleys, read the old in- 
scriptions buried beneath the tall weeds, and you will 
find there the whole history of the city since the pur- 
chase of Louisiana by the United States. The writer 



— 114 — 

Las searched tbe wliole ceuietei y and found tlint tlie 
oldest e[)itapb extant does not go back fnrtber tlinii 
1800. It is traced on a small wrougbt iron cross and 
reads as follows: 

Nanettk F. De Bailly, 

Died the 24th of September, 1800. 

Aged 45 Tears. 

Tbougb tbe Saint Louis Cemetery contains tombs 
of wealtby families, none but tbe monument of tbe 
"New Orleans Italian Benevolent Society" has an 
artistic value. Tbe different pieces of tbis mausoleum 
were imported from Italy, wbere tbey were carved. 
Tbree life size statues in marble representing Faith, 
Italy and Motberbood adorn tbe monument. It is 
not perhaps the grandest nor the richest mausoleum 
in tbe city, but it seems to be tbe one which embodies 
the purest forms of funeral architecture. 

The Saint Louis Cemetery appeals poorly to the 
artistic sense, but it is a spot of absorbing interest to 
those who know and love the past. Within its an- 
cient precincts rest the remains of those wbo were 
the makers of tbe city's history; tbe sturdy emi- 
grants wbo came from tbe Old World to give to 
their ambition a larger tield; men wbo figured promi- 
nently in the early history of tbe State, otliers wbo 
Avorked and achieved nothing. There they lie all side 
by side, some whose names are still remembered, 
others, for tbe most part, buried forever in oblivion. 

New Orleans is " i)ar excellence" a cosmo[)olitan 
city, and this fact cannot be better illustrated than 
by reading some of the inscriptions chosen at random 
from among tbe tombs in tbe Old Saint Louis Ceme- 




Photo C. M. C. 



Gayaure and de Bor^e's Tomb. 



— 116 — 

tery. Almost <ill tlie nations, even remote Chiiiii, are 
represented among' the foreigners who rest there be- 
side the ehildren of the hmd. Some of the resident 
foreigners have even formed national societies and 
own a common tomb; snch as "La Societe Fran^aisede 
Bienfaisance," " Societad Portugaesa de Uencii 
cencia,'' the " Compiiniade V'olnntarios Catalancs/' 
aud others of minor imi)ortance. 

In the rear of the cemetery, in the same simple, 
old-fashioned, oven-shai)ed tomb, rest two men who 
left an undying name in the annals of our city: the 
one, Etienne de Bore, the i)lanter who first succeeded 
in granulating sugai'; the otlier, his grandson, Charles 
Gayarre, thefamons historian of Louisiana. 

In the same section of the old graveyard rises a 
tomb in the form of a fort. It is sacred — 

To lUK Mkmoiiy of 

CLAIUCK DUUAr.DK CLAI15(»KNK, 

The Toniujest DaiKjhter of Mart'iti Diuulde of Attakapaa, 

and Wife of JVUUain C. Claibunie, Goccnior 

of the Territori/ of Orleans, 

Died on the ,29th of November, 1S09, 

in the 21st Year of Her Age. 

In the tomb next to the latter, on the left side, 
lies buried — 

Myka Cr.AliK Gainks. 

Daughter of 

Dnniel Clark atid Ziiline Carriere, 

Died January 9th, 1SS5, 

Aged 78 Years. 

Rest in Peace. 

Erected by Her Loving Godchild, 

Mijra Clark Caints Materat. 



— 118 — 

Daniel Clark was the Americau Consul in Xew 
Orleans during the Spanish regime, and was claimed 
by IMyra Clark Gaines ns her hiwful father; a claim 
out of which grew the litigation of Myra Clark 
Gaiues, which became famous throughout the country, 
jVIrs. Gaines spent her life proving her rights, and 
after fifty years it was finally decided in her favor 
by the United States Supreme Court. 

The city of Xew Orleans had to pay the claims, 
wbicli amounted to thousands of dollars and involved 
some of the most valuable city property. Slie is 
buried beside her father, Daniel Clark, whose grave 
had fallen into utter decay. Myra Chirk Gaines 
Mazerat, a prominent lady who resides in New Oileans 
and who was liberally remeuibered by iAIrs. Gaines in 
her will, restored the ruined grave and built above it 
a monument. 



Further back in the rear of the cemetery in an 
enclosed corner, amid weeds of tremendous iR'ight, 
rest the renuiins of several brave soldiers Avho fought 
and laid down their lives for their country in the war 
with England. 

The following are some of the epitaphs that are 
still visible: 

Ix Memoky ok 

Benedict Francis Pkadelles, 

Born in Bai/eux, in the French Flanders, 

August 31st, 1755. 

He Served During the American Iverohition as an 

Officer in the French Army. 

December 23rd, 1S14. 




Photo C. M. C. 



A Forlorn Alley. 



— 12U — 

Erkctf.d to the Mkmohy of 

William Parmfee, 

A Xative of New Iivglatid, 

Who Was Killed w the Defense of the City of Xetv Orleans, 

in the Battle IVith the British Army, 

Decemher 23rd, 1814. 



Sacrki) to the Memory of 
William P. Camby, 

^lidshiinuan of the U. S. Xary, Born (Norfolk), 

August 10th, 1796, 

Who Fell in That Inequal Conquest 

Bdirceii the ZL S. Gunhoat Squadron and the British Flotilla, 

on Lale Boryne, Xear Xcu' Orleans, 

December 14, IS 14. 

Wliat a lesson it is to look upon these abandoned 
tombs, and liow pitifnl after all is linuian greatness. 
There sleep heroes who bravely ga\e their lives for 
the defense of their own City and St;ite, and yet there 
are none today to show them tiie simjilc tribnte of 
gratitnde and respect b}' even so small a thing- as 
keei)iHg- their graves in good order. 



Not far from those who died on the battlefield in 
defense of JN'ew Orleans, lies buried a youth who fell 
under the "dueling oaks," a victim of honor, one of 
the too many who at this time sought vengeance at 
the ])oint of a foil, or mistook their right with their 
skill of marksman. 

Here Also Rests the Body of 
MiCAjAii Grfex Lewis, 

Brother of Eliza Claihorue and Brivate Secretary 

to Governor Claihorue, 

Who Fell in a Duel on February 14th, 1S05, 

In the SOth of His Age. 



— 121 — 

With the dead made self -illustrious by their 
deeds, are the dead illustrious by reasou of their birth, 
for some inscriptious bear names and titles among 
the oldest of the European nobility, notabl}^ the 
following: 

To Her Sox, 

Albert Montecuccoli Laderchi, * 

Born March 30th, 1S29, Died Amjust, 1853, 

His Mother Praying for the Repose of His Soul. 

Chalmette, Coiiiitess MontecuccoJi Laderchi, 

Born Princess Cettingen WaUenstein. 



Ci GlT 

Demoiselle Anne Barbe Dominique, 

Nee a Madrid Van 1771, 

Decedee le 22 JuiUet 1808, 

Fille Legitime de Fen Jean Bodolphe, Baron de Brouner, 

Lieutenant Colonel des Armees de S. M. C, 

et de Dame Camille Carpona de Sjyinola. 

Illustrious neither by birth nor by deeds, but full 
of promise for a successful life, was the obscure 
young man who lies beneath the following touching 
inscription : 



122 

Sacked to thk Mkmoky ok 

KlCHAliD, 

0>ihj Son of liichdid and Liicretia Law, 

Who ('anic to This ('onnlnj 2sovember, ISIS, 

Under the Flattering Jnspices of a Generous and 

Dis i n terested Pa tron. 

The Sanguine Ardor of a Yoiithfnl Imagination 

Led Him to Look Forward to the Time 

When hji Diligenee and Frngalitg 

Ererg Savrijice Would. Be liepaid 

Bg His Returning With a Competency 

To His Parents and Sisters. 

It Pleased the Ahnightg God, Disposer of Our Destinies, 

To Convince Us of the Incertaintg 

of All Earthly Happiness. 

He Fell a Victim of the Yellow Fever 

September 16th, 1S09, 

Aged Twenty-three Years and Ten Months. 

"A Father^ 8 Hope, a Mother'' s Joy." 

Is not this cemetery a world in itself ! From 
all i)arts of the earth the dead are here : they 
belong to all the degrees of society, made equal iii 
death ! All await in the majestic silence of the 
tomb the great awakening. 

The " Old Saint Louis Cemetery " is something 
more than an historical landmark. Through the 
si)ectacle of death it speaks of life, and nowhere may 
we recall with a deeper sense of their significance 
the immortal lines of the poet : 

" Life is real, Life is earnest, 
Aud the grave is not its goal; 

Dust thou art, to dust retnrueth, 
Was not spoken of the soul." 



CHAPTER II. 

Sr. ANTHONY MORTUARY CHAPEL. 



Thk OiUGix OF A Shiune — LAST Yeahs ok a Soi.dieu Pjjiest 
— St. Anthony Chapei, Bkcomes an Italian Parish 

ClIUUCH. 



At tlie corner of Noitli Kainpart nnd Conti 
streets stands the old jVrortuary Chajiel of New Or- 
leans, known in onr days as the Chnrch of Saint 
Anthony of Padiui. liampart street marked the 
ancient limits of the city laid ont by Bienville, the 
street having been so named because of the strong" 
redonbt which ran along- it in colonial days. 

As the city si)read beyond its primitive limits, 
the moat which ran throngh the centre of the 
nentral ground, or present car track, was filled in ; 
beautiful shade trees were planted along the way on 
either side; the outlying section of the ancient city 
gradually became a resident portion. 

This rapid growth of old New Orleans, which a 
few years before had caused the City Council to 
Older the removal of the Old Saint Louis Cemetery to 
a further location, operated in 1811> as a powerful 
argument with the authorities to nrge upon the 
Trustees of the Saint Louis Cathedral the erection 
of a mortuary chapel, whence the dead would be 
directly conveyed from their abode, and thence to 
the adjoining cemetery, thus avoiding, as the Mayor 
explained, "those funeral processions which are but 



— 124 - 

too ai)t to scatter tliiougliout the city tlie fatal lui- 
asma of fever." 

It is, therefore, to tlie City Ooniicil that the old 
Mortuary Chapel owed its origin. The negotiations 
began in June, 1819. In consequence of a motion i)ut 
before the City Council, and ado])ted, the i\Tayor 
wrote to tlie Trustees of the Saint Louis Cathedral, 
offering them pait of the lots boidt'iing on the paro- 
chial cemetery. " This land," the IMayor said, " would 
be sold to the Trustees at a moderate price, if they, 
in their well-known devotcdness to the public welfare, 
would have a mortuary chapel erected there." 

The i)roposal of the City Council was accepted, 
and Mr. Caisergues, Piesident of the Trustees, was 
charged to reach an agreement with the IMayor on 
the subject. Unfortunately, the Cathedral was very 
much in need of money at this time, tlie parish fund 
having been drained by the election of a newsteei)le, 
the ])urchase of a town clock and an organ. So this 
project, like many others, f<'ll through for lack of 
means. 

The cpiestion. however, was not forgotten, and in 
Sei)tember, 1824, the City Council renewed the ])ro- 
l)osition, recalling the negotiations opened a few 
years before, and the willingness of the Trustees at 
that time to comply with the request. The treasury 
of the Cathedral being now in a better condition, the 
Trustees ai)pointed a committee to meet the ^fayor 
and carry out the desires of the City Council. 

December 29, 1825, the negotiations were com- 
pleted. The lots offered by the city were bought by 
the Saint Louis Cathedral at a cost of $425 each. The 
deed of sale, ]»ropeily made out and signed, was de- 




u 

a 

s ^ 

O 00 

1- -I— I 



O 



— 126 — 

posited in the arcliives of Felix de Arums, a Xotaiy 
Public. 

Once ill complete and undisputed possession of 
the grounds, the Trustees of the Saint Louis Catlie- 
dral at once proceeded to carry out the idea of erect- 
ing- the Mortuary Chapel, and in September, 1826, 
issued a call for competitive bids. The bid made by 
Messrs. Guillot «& Gurlie was given the preference. 
According to their plans the building was to be 40 
French feet in width, 80 feet in length, and 24 feet 
in height. The total cost of the chapel, with the 
guardian's house and the wall of inclosure, was to 
amount to 114,000, payable in installments according 
to the contract. While the building was in course of 
erection, however, several alterations in the way of 
improvements were i incorporated in the original i)lan, 
and the total cost of the buildings thus raised to 
about 117,000. 

The work was prosecuted Avith great rapiditj^, 
and on Wednesday, October 14, 1820, at half-past four 
o'clock in the afternoon, the corner stone of the chapel 
was laid by llev. Antonio de Sedella, the famous and 
beloved Pere Antoijie who i)layed such a part in the 
early history of New Orleans. Pere Antoine was 
assisted by his clergy; the Trustees of the Saint Louis 
Cathedral, the Mayor, the City Council and the Re- 
corder of the city were also present at the ceremony. 
Within a few months, quaint and beautiful, and in 
keeping with the ancient Spanish style of architec- 
ture which prevailed in New Orleans, the Mortuary 
Chapel arose. Even before its completion, a custo- 
dian, whose name was Louis Vallegas, was appointed 
and given a salary of $21 a month. At the same time 



— 127 — 

the City Council hastened to brin<i- into execution the 
sanitary lueasnres it desired to inaugurate, and issued 
the following- decree, September 29, 1827: 

" The Trustees of the Saint Louis Parish Church, 
having- informed the City Council that the Mortuary 
Chapel erected near the Saint Louis Cemetery is now- 
completed, the. City Council hereby resolves : 

" That from the first of November, it is forbidden 
to take to, or to expose a corpse in the Saint Louis 
Parish Church, under the penalty of $50, to be levied 
for the benefit of the Corporation, ag-ainst any one 
-who shall have taken to or exposed a corpse in the 
aforesaid church. Any priest who shall perform a 
funeral ceremony in the same church shall be liable 
to the same fine. Henceforth the dead shall be con- 
veyed to the Mortuarj^ Chapel, where tlie funeral 
rites shall be performed. 

(Signed) " D. Prieur, 

" Recorder. 

"Approved September 26, 1827. 

" ROFFIGNAC, 

" Mayor." 

December 27, 1827, after the mass, and in pres- 
ence of the civil authorities, Pere Antoine blessed the 
new sanctuary. 

As the Saint Louis Cathedral was the only 
Catholic church in the city, and the Old Saint Louis 
Cemetery the only Catholic cemetery, funerals came 
in large numbers every day, and soon the custodian 
was unable to call the priests of the Cathedral to 
pei'form the rites. Father Tomero, who appears to 
have been a missionary priest, being aware of this 



— 128 — 

state of affairs, offered himself as chaplain of the 
Mortuary Chapel, and was accepted at a salary of 
$30 a month. The ai)pointuient of a resident chaplain 
forms the actual starting- point of the Church of 
Saint Anthony of Padua. 

It continued to be used as a mortuary chapel 
until about 1860. 

During forty years and more, from the time that 
Pere Antoine first chanted there the " De Prof undis," 
and the " Eequiescat in Pace," its portals were daily 
open to funeral processions, and its walls re-echoed 
the unchanging and solemn liturgy of the Church 
over her dead, " Eternal rest give unto them, oh, 
Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them." 

How many hundreds of this old Franco-Spanish 
city have spent within the venerable walls of the old 
chapel their last hour at the light of day, God alone 
can tell. 

In 1853, just after the terrible epidemic of yellow 
fever, the City of Kew Orleans had far outgrown the 
purpose for which the Ancient Mortuary Chapel was 
founded. All over the city, from Carrollton to the 
Barracks, were scattered churches. Catholic and Pro- 
testant. To these churches the dead had been borne 
in one of the most fatal visitations of yellow fever 
that Xew Orleans had ever known. It seemed to 
everyone the height of absurdity to apply to the 
Saint Louis Cathedral Parish alone, the sanitary 
regulation of 1827, regarding the burial of the dead. 
The city had outgrown the regulation, and the old 
Mortuary Chapel had outlived the original i)uri)oses 
for which it had been founded. The same law that 
applied to other churches in permitting fnneral ser- 



— 129 



vices to be held within their portals, now applied 
to the Saint Louis Cathedral, and the use of the 
old chapel for mortuary purposes was gradually dis- 
continued. 



Some ten years afterwards was attached to the 
Saint Louis Cathedral as assistant the great soldier 

priest of the Confeder- 
acy, Rev. Father Tur- 
gis. His famous record 
in the great struggle 
between the States is 
not only a matter of 
Southern, but of na- 
tional history. When 
the struggle ended the 
hearts of the old sol- 
diers followed their 
friend and father, and 
evening after evening 
his room in the Old St. 
Louis Presbytery was 
thronged with his com- 
rades of the Old Or- 
leans Guard and Pointe Couple Artillery. Finally the 
survivors of these two historic commands thought 
that Father Turgis ought to have a church for him- 
self, and so they petitioned the sainted Archbishop 
Odin to give him a parish. Having no other church 
to offer the warrior priest, Archbishop Odin gave him 
the old Mortuary Chapel on North Rampart street, 
and there, day after day, the faithful old priest said 




Photo C. M. C. From a Crayon in 
Memorial Hall. 

Father Turgis. 



— 130 — 

mass with members of liis old guard Ivneeliiig around. 
The walls of that little church and presbytery could 
unfold the most beautiful tale of brotherly love could 
they speak, for the small pension allowed Father Tur- 
gis by the boys in gray was all distributed in alms 
to the old and helpless Confederates, who used to 
style him their Guardian Angel. About the quaint 
old confessional were grouped every Saturday night 
the old soldiers who had followed him so faithfully 
during the bloody war. Around the Communion table 
they would gather, and the few survivors who are still 
among ns love to relate how evening after evening 
found not less than tifteen or twenty of the old 
soldiers gathered in his room in the ])resb3^tery just 
back of the chapel. They represented every creed ; 
they loved him and delighted to recount with him 
the days that had so bitterly tried their hearts and. 
souls. 

Father Turgis died in the little back room of 
the old presbytery of Saint Anthony's Church. 
Almost his last words were : " I have seen death so 
often that I do not fear it now." His remains were 
exposed in the old chapel .and here was chanted above 
them the Solemn Requiem Mass. No funeral in New 
Orleans, except that of Jefferson Davis, the Presi- 
dent of the Confederacy, ever attracted such a crowd 
to the city. From all parts of the State the Confed- 
erate veterans came to the old chapel. The streets 
were thronged for blocks around. Hundreds of men 
and women followed the funeral on foot. All the 
survivors of the Army of Northern Virginia and of 
the Army of Tennessee followed the remains to their 
last resting place in the New Saint Louis Cemetery, 



— 131 — 

where a beautiful inonument lias been raised to Father 
Turgis' memory by the Army of Tennessee. 



Immigration from Italy began to pour into New 
Orleans. It soon became apparent to the Archbishop, 
Most Rev. Napoleon Joseph Perch6, that more special 
provision had to be made for the religious guidance 
of these emigrants. For some years there had stood 
in Esplanade street, near the Levee, a frame building 
whicli was called the Chapel of the Resurrection. It 
was devoted exclusively to the use of Italian emi- 
grants, and Rev, Father Cajoue was in charge. In 
the early '70s he had as assistant in his work Rev. 
Father Manoritta, than whom no Italian worker be- 
came better known in New Orleans. 

In January, 1875, Archbishop Perche decided to 
convert the old Mortuary Chapel into a parish for 
the Italians, and lie named Rev. Father Manoritta as 
rector. The ancient edifice, which had from its founda- 
tion served as an annex to the Saint Louis Cathedral, 
was now entirely severed from connection with itj 
and became a distinct parish church for Italians 
under the name of Saint Anthony of Padua's Church. 
The following is the first record found among the 
l)arisli archives : " This day, January 25, 1875, I 
have bajitized the first person ever baptized in tliis 
church of Saint Antiiony of Padua. Signed, Father 
Manoritta, formerly (Uiaplain of the Chapel of the 
Resurrection." The church continued in charge of 
Father Manoritta until November 5, 1902, when he 
resigned the rectorship to spend his last days in his 
native Italy. The last baptism recorded by Father 



— 132 — 

Manoritta is dated November 2, 1902. On Xovember 
5, 1902, His Grace, the lameuted Arclibislioj) Chapelle, 
placed the Church of Saint Anthony of Padua in 
charge temporarily of the late Eev. Father Widman, 
S. J., who continued to administer its affairs for 
eleven months until October 1, 1903, when Arch- 
bishop Chapelle confined the care of the Italian 
people to the Spanish Dominican Fathers, aud placed 
Saint Anthony's Church in their charge. The rector 
of the church is Very Eev. Thos. Lorente, O. P. He 
is one of the famous Philippine Friars, having been 
professor in the University of Saint Thomas, at 
Manila. He served as Secretary to Most Eev. P. L. 
Chapelle, while the latter was Apostolic delegate in 
the Philippine Islands, immediately after the close 
of the late war with Spain. Through the zeal 
of the Dominican Fathers the little congregation, 
scattered all over the city, has grown considerably. 
Many of the old customs of the churches of Italy 
still maintain here and the feasts are celebrated with 
elaborate ceremonies. 

Once it was feared that the ancient landmark 
would be given over to the i^ickaxe aud hammer of 
demolishers, aud that travelers would be seen hur- 
rying onward in the busy rush of commerce and 
pleasure, to the spot where once men went for medi- 
tation aud prayer. But such a fate seems to have 
been conjured, and the ironclad monster engines 
that once menaced not only the existence of Saint 
Anthony's Chapel, but of the Old Saint Louis Ceme- 
tery beyond, now roll on between both, bringing in 
close touch the restless activity of the living and the 
eternal stillness of the dead. 



CHAPTEE III. 

THE OLD URSULINE CONVENT (ARCHBISHOPRIC). 



Pioneers of Female Education in America — Memorable 
Journey of the Uhsuline Nuns — A Triumphal Pag- 
eant — A Mute Witness of the Past. 



Tbe first TIrsuline Convent ranks with the Cathe- 
dral and the Old Saint Louis Cemetery among the 
most interesting landmarks of New Orleans. 

The devouring tooth of time has eaten into the 
blue gray stucco which once covered its massive 
walls, but not a vestige of its old aspect has departed, 
and although battered and decayed, the old convent 
is still one of the largest and strongest buildings of 
the "Old Carre." 

It is even more than an old mansion ; it is a relic 
of the past, a household of souvenirs, a living witness 
of the wonderful story of the Ursulines that reads 
like a romance in our day. 

Let the visitor stop at the porch and recall the 
seemingly endless journey of the pious voyagers 
from Hennebou ; then religious awe and deeper 
respect will escort him throughout, where lived and 
died those Avhose purity of life has been equaled only 
by the firmness and devotion they showed in uphold- 
ing this higher standard of womanhood of which the 
daughters of Louisiana give so noble a living ex- 
ample. 

Just a few years after having transferred the 
Capitol of Louisiana from Mobile to New Orleans, 



— 134 — 

Governor Bienville thought to secure some teachers 
to educate the girls of tlie colony. A boys' school 
had been already opened by a Capuchin monk, Father 
C^cil, who taught his pupils in a house adjacent to 
his monastery, near the parish church. 

At first Bienville turned to his native country, 
Canada, to enroll some " Soeurs Grises," but his 
project proved impracticable. 

He then consulted Father Beaubois, Superior of 
the Jesuits, who offered to apply to the Ursuliues of 
Eouen. After much deliberation a treaty was con- 
cluded, September 13, 1726, by which these pious 
ladies engaged to supply teachers and nurses for 
'New Orleans. 

A lady bearing the somewhat singular name of 
Tranchepain, was appointed superioress. She was a 
convert from Calvinism, and had taken the veil 
among the Ursuliues in 1699. All the nuns chosen 
for the Louisiana mission assembled in the monastery 
of Hennebon, in Brittany, to acknowledge as their 
superioress JMarie. Tranchepain of Saint Augustine, 
January 1, 1727. On the 27th of January, 1727, the 
nuns looked their last on Paris, whence they jour- 
neyed to Lorient, delayed by execrable roads and bad 
weather, but bright and cheerful under all contrari- 
eties. On February 22 they bade adieu to their country 
"for the glory of God and the salvation of poor 
savages." They sailed on the " Giroude " with the 
Jesuit Fathers Tartarin and Doutreleau and " Frere 
Crucy," who, with Madeleine Hachard, a novice, 
being the youngest of the party, considered it " their 
duty to amuse the rest." 



— 135 — 

The voyage had its chroniclers, and every inci- 
dent is vividly described in the letters and diaries of 
Mother Tranchepain and Sister Hachard, These nuns 
wrote with ease and elegance, and one cannot read 
their narratives without interest. It would take too 
long to give details of this seven months' journey 
from Paris to IS^ew Orleans over the stormy Atlantic, 
among the West Indian Isles, on the Caribbean Sea 
and the Gulf of Mexico, and up the Mississippi. 
Besides, no words can describe, in these days of rapid 
travel with Pullman boudoirs and ocean palaces, the 
sufferings of those '' who went down to the sea in 
ships," a hundred and eighty-one years ago. Now 
they were threatened with a watery grave, again 
with starvation and thirst; once the ship barely 
escaped hostile corsairs ; later they encountered 
savages of so peculiarly ferocious a type that they 
murdered by slow tortures all the whites whom they 
captured and made every victim drink his own blood. 

The scenery and the trials of the last days of 
this journey were a befitting climax to the voyage. 
Probably no scene on earth was so bleak and dreary 
as was the entrance from the Gulf to the Mississippi, 
nearly two hundred years ago. An interminable 
waste of waters, a vast morass impassable for man 
or beast, shoals and bars, low strips of coast covered 
with poplars, prairies of reeds, a wilderness of cane 
brakes, the mouths of the river strewn with drift 
wood and half choked with wrecks — these greeted 
the voyagers. 

As they ascended the river, forests that seemed 
co-eval with the creation itself opened before their 
eyes ; here and there were seen a solitary hut for 



— 136 — 

pilots, stretches of green savanna, gaunt trunks of 
trees stuck fast in the sand, gigantic cypress shrouded 
in funeral moss, half surmerged in the yellow waves. 
Gloom and magnificence everywhere miugled ; fishes 
disportiugthemselvesruffledtheoldgoldsurface of the 
melancholic river; blue cranes, like flying skeletons, 
hovered about the little flotilla; swarthy, half nude 
natives in pirogues and chaloupes glided among the 
wondrous waves, shimmering in the mystic charm of 
the summer sunlight. " l!^everlesss, the trials and 
fatigues of our five months' voyage," writes Sister 
Hachard, " are not to be comi)ared Avith what we 
had to endure in our fifteen days' journey from the 
Gulf to New Orleans, a distance of thirty leagues." 
On August 7th, 1727, the nuns reached the city 
of which our chronicler gives the rather flattering 
description : " It is very handsome, well built and regu- 
gularly laid out. The streets are wide and straight; 
the houses wainscoted and latticed, the roofs sup- 
ported by whitewashed pillars and covered with 
shingles, that is, thin boards cut to resemble slates, 
and imitating them to perfection. * * * The colon- 
ists sing that their town is as beautiful as Paris. But I 
find a difference. 'J^he songs may persuade those 
who have never seen the capital of France. But I 
haA'e seen it, and they fail to persuade me." To tell 
the truth, the country, save for a small space around 
the church, was thickly wooded to the water's edge, 
and tlie trees were of prodigious height. The squares 
and streets laid out by engineer La Tour were 
still mostly on paper. Since the hurricane of 172^3 
had swept away the cabins of the first settlers, it is 
true, colonists were slowly rebuilding the town on 



— 138 — 

a scale of comfort and splendor which suri)rised 
and delighted the nuns. A crayon sketch carefully 
preserved in the present convent, gives a lively repre- 
sentation of the "Landing of the Ursulines." The 
nuns are in i)rocessi()n, wearing the ample garb of 
their Order. Sister Hachard's tine, strong lineaments 
are partially concealed by the flowing white veil of a 
novice. Father Beaubois presents them to the Capu- 
chins of the parish church, and points out the Indians 
and negroes, their future charges. A negress holding' 
a solemn ebony baby, regards the group with awe 
and wonderment. A beautiful squaw, decked with 
beads and shells, surrounded by plump papooses, 
half reclining with natural grace on a log, and a 
very large Congo negro has stopped his work and 
betaken himself to the top of a wood pile to gaze 
leisurely on the scene. Claude Massy, an Ursuline 
postulant, carries a cat which she tenderly caresses, 
and another, " Sister Anne," is searching a basket 
for something ; both wear the high peaked Normandy 
cap. Franciscans heavily bearded, and Jesuits in 
large cloaks, appear in the distance. Immense trees, 
which have long since disappeared, overshadow the 
whole group. The picture is a most interesting and 
valuable relic, probably the only one in existence 
which shows all together the first schoolmasters and 
schoolmistresses of New Orleans and of Louisiana. 

Governor Perier, his wife and all the people wel- 
comed the nuns as risen from the dead, for they had 
been given up as lost. 

As the building intended for them was not com- 
pleted, Bienville's country house, the best in the 
colony, was offered to them provisionally. It was 



— 139 — 

a two-story edifice with a flat roof used as a bel- 
videre or gallery, situated on Bienville street, be- 
tween Royal and Chartres streets. Six doors gave 
ingress and egress to the apartments on the ground 
floor. Large and numerous windows, with sashes 
covered with fine linen, let in as much light as glass. 
From the roof the nuns might gaze on a scene of 
weird and solemn splendor. Swamps and clumps of 
palmetto and tangled vines ; the surrounding wilder- 
ness with groups of spreading live oaks (chenieres) 
cut up by glassy bayous, was the home of reptiles, 
wild beasts, vultures, herons and many wondrous 
specimens of the fauna of Louisiaua. 

The Sisters at once began to teach the children 
and extend their cares to the sick, the Indians and the 
colored folk. Sister Hachard praises the docility of 
the children, " who can be molded as one pleases." 
She says that it is easy to instruct the negroes once 
they have learnt French, but "impossible to baptize 
the Indians without trembling, on account of their 
natural propensity to evil, particularly the squaws, 
who, under an air of modesty, hide the passions of 
beasts." 

The hospital of the Sisters usually had from 
thirty to forty patients, mostly soldiers. Everything 
was so w^ell arranged that the officials said it was 
useless for them to continue their visits, as there was 
noth.ing for them to do. At first the iufirmarian nun 
watched the nurses, but ere long she took sole charge. 
The sick could not say enough in praise of their 
"mothers," who would gratify their tastes when it 
could be done without prejudice to their health. 
" We bless God for the success of this Christian 



— 140 — 

work," writes Sister Hachartl. ''The spirit of our 
holy institute shows itself in the good our Sisters do 
for souls while attending to the wants of the body." 

The community which thus auspiciously began 
the work of education in Louisiana consisted of eight 
professed members, one novice and two candidates. 
Bienville's country house, which had been turned into a 
convent, soon became too small for the number of ever 
increasing pupils. Unfortunately the convent, which 
was in course of construction at the other extremity 
of the town, did not show any encouraging signs of 
progress. The Indian Company had promised to have 
it ready in six months, but the construction dragged 
along considerably and the six months lengthened 
out to seven years. The gentlemen who had be- 
gun this work with a relative diligence, had grown 
weary, and neither tears nor solicitations could pre- 
vail on them to supply the; material and finish the 
work. 

Tradition asserts that the nuns quitted Bienville's 
villa to live for a time on the plantation they had re- 
ceived from the Indian Company for their support. 
Nun street, a short street flanked with cotton presses 
and opening on the levees, is cemmonly designed as 
the site of this country house, and Eeligious street, 
Notre Dame street, Annunciation street and Teresa 
street seemed to have formed a kind of network over 
what is supposed to have been the Ursuline plan- 
tation. 



At last the convent, promised by the Indian 
Comjiany and under construction since seven years, 



— 141 — 

was completed. The nuns, who had been at a time dis- 
heartened by so long an expectance, again became 
hopeful and made their removal to the new monastery 
the occasion of one of the most elegant pageants ever 
seen in this city. On Saturday, the 13th of July, 
1734, just as the nuns resolved to postpone their, de- 
parture indefinitely on account of a rain which had 
lasted three days, the sun bursted out suddenly from 
the cloudy heavens, and in his brilliant light and 
tropical heat the waters soon subsided. The nuns 
took the sudden clearing of the sky as a good omen, 
and at 5. p. m. all their bells rang out to announce 
their intended departure. Bienville, whose third 
term (1733-1743) had recently begun, soon ai^peared 
in the convent chapel, where the nuns knelt for the 
last time. Fathers Beaubois and Petit, and Br-other 
Parisel, Jesuits ; Fathers Philip and Pierre, Capu- 
chins, and the most distinguished people of the 
place surrounded the brilliantly lighted altar, and 
the troops, half Frencli and half Swiss, drew up on 
either side of the old Bienville mansion, which had 
served as a convent for the past seven years. This 
venerable house, that saw the beginning of the Ur- 
sulines in Louisiana, and in which died the brave and 
gentle superioress. Mother Augustine Tranchepain, on 
November 11, 1733, was destroyed in the dreadful 
contlagration of Good Friday, 1788. 

After the benediction, given by Father Philip, 
assisted by Fathers Beaubois and Petit, all left the 
chapel in procession, tlie citizens opening the march. 
Then came the children of the orphanage and the 
day school pupils, followed by forty of the principal 
ladies of the city, bearing torches; next twenty 



— 142 — 

young girls, robed and veiled in the purest white, and 
twelve others, representing- Saint Ursula and her 
11,000 companions. The boarders, orphans and day 
pupils carried wax tapers. The young lady who 
personated Saint Ursula wore a costly robe and a regal 
mantle of tissue of silver. Her crown glittered with 
pearls and diamonds, and a veil of the richest lace fell 
about her in graceful folds. She bore in her hajid 
a heart pierced with arrows, made with wondrous 
skill. Fair children arrayed as angels surrounded 
her, and all waved palm branches, emblematic of the 
glorious victory won by the heroic virgin martyrs, 
whom they had the honor to represent. 

At the end of the procession came the nuns with 
lighted caudles, and the clergy carrying a rich 
canopy, under which the INIost Blessed Sacrament 
was borne in triumph. Bienville and his staff, the 
Intendant of the province, Mr. Salmon, and the whole 
population formed their escort. The soldiers moved 
in single file on either side, about four feet from the 
procession. Hymns were sung by all, the accom- 
paniment of fifes and drums making pleasing har- 
mony ; Brother Parisel, in surplice, acted as master of 
ceremonies, and perfect order and decorum gave to 
the display the last touch that crowns a thorough 
success. 

This moving panorama of light, color and beauty 
halted between the Saint Louis Parish Church 
and the "Place d'Armes," and defiled gracefully 
down the aisles of the church, the troops kneeling 
and presenting arms to do honor to the Blessed 
Sacrament. The nuns knelt within the sanctuary, 
and Father Philip placed the "Veiled Saviour" on 



— 143 — 

the iiltar, Avliile soldiei-s, robed ns acolytes, were 
swinging censeis, from which arose delicate perfumes. 
The congregation remained prostrate till Father 
Petit, the orator of the occasion, ascended the pulpit. 
In a sermon, described as most eloquent by the nun 
whose facile pen has embalmed these precious details, 
he set forth the necessity and advantages of giving 
young- persons a solid Christian education. In glow- 
ing words he congratulated the nuns on their labor 
to this great end, so conducive to the glory of God 
and the welfare of the colony. At the close of this 
touching address, the soldiers sang hymns, and 
Fatlier Phili]) gave the Benediction, 

When the procession wound out of the church, 
the torches and tapers were not superfluous; the 
sun Avas setting, but the afterglow remained for a 
while, burnishing- the lofty trees and turning the 
mighty river into colors of molten gold. All drew 
up before the "Place d'Armes" and the bells of the 
new monastery rang out their merriest peals as the 
procession moved slowly in the deepening twilight. 

" Thus did we enter our new abode," writes 
Madeline Hachard, "amid the chiming of bells, the 
music of fifes and drums, and the singing of praise 
and thanksgiving to our Heavenly Father, whose 
loving Providence has lavished on us so many fa- 
vors." 

And now let our imagination follow the nuns in 
their convent. Those who know the old monastery, 
our present Archbishopric, will be interested to know 
that the ground floor had a small chapel, two parlors, 
a room for the Mother Superioress, refectories for the 
Sisters and the boarders, community rooms, kitchen, 



— 144 — 

scullery and pantry. On the next floor were the dor- 
mitories, infirmary, sacristy, linen room, wardrobe. 
The orphans occupied part of the upper story; the 
rest was used as an instruction room for colored 
women. At the same time the Indian Company 
erected a separate building- for the sick, to which the 
patients were removed on the 20tli of August, 1734. 
This addition was behind the convent, and faced 
Arsenal street, which changed its name to Hospital 
street. This convent sheltered the Ursulines for 
ninety years. In 1821, the nuns built a siiacious 
monastery, three miles below the city. To this they 
removed, without ceremony of any kind, during the 
vacation of 1821. At tirst three nuns and a novice 
took up their abode in it on July 2Gth. Two weeks 
later several other Sisters and the boarders followed 
the superioress and others remained in the city till 
the closing' of the day-school in September. 

The early dwellers in the new home had uuiny 
privations to endure; having no cooking apparatus, 
their meals were sent from the old house. Once their 
caterer did not come till evening, nor was his arrival 
a source of comfort, as he i)resented only empty 
dishes, his cart having upset on the way. Even at 
this time, depredations by Indians in the suburbs of 
the city were not unknown, and the nuns were so 
much afraid that they could not sleep. Finally, one 
of the bravest. Sister Marie Olivier, offered to keep 
watch while the others slept. But neither Indians 
nor other robbers made their ajipearance in her hours 
of patrol. 



— 146 — 

The old convent in Chartres street, which was 
abandoned by the Ui sulines, saw various uses. In 1831 
the Louisiana State House having been destroyed 
by fire, the Legishiture rented the ancient edifice 
from the nuns, and held several sessions within its 
walls. Shortly after the lease expired the Ursulines 
presented it to the Archbishop of New Orleans as 
a place of residence. 

It was so used until 1899, when a number of the 
Catholic clergy and laity purchased the old Slocomb 
residence in Esplanade avenue, and presented it to 
the late Archbishop Chapelle as a residence for the 
Archbishops of New Orleans. The historic old site 
in Chartres street is still known, however, as " the 
Archbishopric," and is used for the transaction of 
all the official business of the Archdiocese. 

Though several times repaired, the venerable 
building has lost nothing of its antique aspect; all of 
its interesting features have been carefully preserved, 
and nothing of them has been sacrificed to the restless 
taste for modern comfort. Entering through the 
l)orter's lodge, in the door of which is the usual 
convent grating or ''guichet," as it is called, a small 
garden is reached, and a good view is had of the 
venerable building, which was i)lanned after the 
Tuscan composite style. Crossing the garden, the 
visitor enters by an old-fashioned porch a large 
vestibule, from which diverge several passages lead- 
ing to the courtyard, the adjacent Saint Mary's 
Church, and to various parts of the building. The 
interior remains almost in its original state, with a 
curious old staircase, heavy doors, and cypress floors, 
the latter so worn that the ill-fashioned, old hand- 



— 147 — 

made iinils protrude. The walls are several feet 
thick, and the Ijeaiiis and rafters, which the saw 
never touched, seetn ns strou<i' as when they left the 
forest. In the dining room, which has natural 
l^anels of natural cypress, .are several paintings, 
mostly pictures of the late prelates of the diocese. 

On the second Hoor are the offices of the Arch- 
bishop, the library, the guest-rooms and the apart- 
ments of the Chancellor and other attendants of the 
Archiepiscopal household. The interior gallery opens 
on a square of green lawn, at the end of which has 
been erected a shrine to the Virgin. On the third 
floor of the building may still be seen the quaint 
little cells of the nuns, and the old-fashioned desk of 
the community room, at which the superioress sat and 
presided, when the nuns met for instruction and 
prayer. The entire building is covered with a heavy 
peaked roof. 

Just at the corner of Hospital and Chartres 
streets, where a grocery now stands, was the ancient 
burial ground of the convent. When in 1824 the 
nuns rensoved to their new quarters, near the Bar- 
racks, the remains of the deceased members were 
disinterred and reburied in the cemetery attached to 
the present convent. But the bodies of the colored 
servants, who were interred in front of the convent, 
were never disturbed. 

Saint jNIary's Church, which flanks the old mon- 
astery on its left, has been built in the early part of 
the last century, as an adjunct to the Archbishopric. 
The church is in charge of the Chancellor, who acts 
as rector. 

The three-story brick building which stands at 



— 148 - 

the riglit of tlie old convent was built under the 
administration of Archbishop Perclie. It served as 
a diocesan seminary for over a decade. Ic is now 
closed, and its solitude and deserted ness harmonize, 
somewhat, with the sacred atmosphere of the old 
monastery, filled with the memories of the past. 

And now, kind reader, that you have followed 
the gentle nuns- from the country home of Bienville 
to their convent on Chartres street, and from Chartres 
street to their present location, at the lower end of the 
city; now that you have gone through the old monas- 
tery, noticing the ravages of time and changes made 
by men, let us pass through it a last time with the 
interest which arises from the knowledge of the past. 
Imagination Will people these old walls in a moment. 

There is the upper story, once used as an instruc- 
tion room for the colored. Dusky girls and women 
came thither in crowds for instruction, advice and 
consolation. Thither, too, came the Indian women, 
with a world of sorrow in their large, dark eyes. 
Let us descend and look through the various apart- 
ments which were once occui)ied by the nuns and 
their pupils. We gaze on the clumsy gate with its 
small "grille" and quaint iron knocker, and think of 
those who passed through these faded portals. The 
early Capuchins and Jesuits, old "Father" Bienville, 
the honest Perier and his pious wife, and the first 
Ursulines of Louisiana. See how they crowd up from 
the past, not shadowy creatures from the twilight 
regions of romance, but beings, real and human, and 
working wMth heart and soul for future g^enerations. 

The "Grand Marquis" De Vaudreuil in gilted 
casque and heron plume, the pensive " Filles a la 



— 150 — 

cassette," the weeping Acadiaus, the chivalrous de- 
scendants of MacCarthy More, the scholarly Ulloa, 
the [»rincely O'Reilly, the dashing Galvez, the h)rdly 
O'Farrell, the intellectual Bishop Penalver, the 
future King of France, Prince Louis Philippe, and 
his two brothers; Andrew Jackson, lean and hag- 
gard from midnight vigils, but illumined and glori- 
fied by his eagle eye; how they all come to memory 
in this hallowed spot, so full of religious and historic 
associations. What a sacred threshold indeed this is ! 
Humble missionaries, chivalrous knights, stately 
dames crossed it daily. It saw painted and feathered 
Indians, stern squaws, negroes from the kraals of 
Africa, all came hither to be consoled or learn the 
secrets of a better land from those who had re- 
nounced the pleasures of the world for their sake. 

The nuns have gone long since, never to return 
again; long since the young daughters of Creole 
lineage have ceased to fill these walls with life and 
merriment ; on the nearby " Place d' Armes " the 
white banner of France was succeeded by the broad 
standard of Spain, which, in turn, was furled to give 
place to the glorious stars and stripes of young 
America. Still stands the old Ursuline Convent, 
by far the oldest building in New Orleans and all 
Louisiana, as well as the most venerably historic. 

It was truly the cradle of religion and education 
in Louisiana. INIay these walls, which enclose so 
many souvenirs of our past, and whose perennial ex- 
istence seems to defy the destructive hand of time, 
be i)reserved and remain a monument of Catholic 
work as long as the sun throws over them the magic 
splendor of its rays. 



CENTENNIAL 
GLORIES. 



A CENTURY OF EPISCOPACY. 



TLe Saint Louis Cathedral enjoyed tliesaiue priv- 
ilege as the illustrious man who lives long enough 
to witness the lasting glory with which time crowns 
his immortal deeds. 

Twice in the last twenty years has the Old Ca- 
thedral known triumphant days ; twice in its honor 
flags and banners were unfurled, cannons boomed, 
and i)eople by thousands crowded its spacious aisles to 
listen to orations whose echo sounded the poem of 
a victorious past. 

On tiie 25th of April the Catholic See of New 
Orleans reached its hundredth year. The day dawned 
bright and beautiful, ideal in coloring and rich with 
the golden sunshine of the tropical spring time. The 
Old Cathedral, robed in its glory and amidst the 
ringing of bells and the booming of artillery, called 
the people to celebrate this great anniversary. From 
the Gulf of Mexico to far off Canada, from the Atlan- 
tic to the Pacific Ocean, the chimes of the Centennial 
Jubilee sounded, and ISTew Orleans witnessed a civil 
and religious demonstration such as had rarely been 
seen in any city of the Union. 

The erection of the Episcopal See of New Orleans 
in 1793 marked an event in the history of Louisiana ; 
the celebration of its hundredth anniversary in 1893 
chronicled a no less important page in the civil and 
religious records, for it witnessed a union of hearts 
and hands between clergy nnd laity, Church and 
State. Protestants and Catholics alike felt pride, be- 



— 154 — 

cause of the glory of the ancient days, the importance 
and standing of the See of ISTew Orleans, and the 
immense influence for good the Catholic Church has 
proven in building up the civilization and intellectual 
thought in Louisiana. 

For months the most elaborate i)reparations had 
been in progress for this centennial celebration. Un- 
der the auspices of Archbishop Janssens, the work 
took definite shape, meeting with immediate and em- 
phatic approval not only from the vast body of 
Catholics in Louisiana, but also from distinguished 
government officials of our own and foreign coun- 
tries. 

Cardinal Gibbons, the beloved j)relate who stands 
at the head of the Catholic hierarchy in America, 
Archbishop Ryan, the venerable and beloved pastor 
who enjoys the reputation of being the most re- 
nowned pulpit orator of the country. Archbishop El- 
der, so long and intimately associated with Mgr. 
Janssens in the field of Christian works, Very Rev. 
Canon Burchesi, who came as a delegate from the 
Archbishop of Montreal; these and twenty other dis- 
tinguished bishops who were holding sway in what 
was formerly the See of New Orleans, gathered 
within the hospitable shades of the Old Cathedral, 
and when the centenary dawned New Orleans held 
within its walls the most notable dignitaries that had 
ever assembled since the foundation of the See. 

The celebration proper began with the setting sun 
on Monday evening, when the Louisiana Battery 
Field Artillery fired a salute of fifty guns in honor of 
the occasion. The next morning a similar salute an- 
nounced to the people of New Orleans that the long 




Courtesy of M;ss M. L. Pcints. 

His Grace Most Rev. F. Janssens. 



— 156 — 

looked for day liad arrived and the jireat celebration 
had begun. Fhigs and banners streamed in tlie 
breeze. Tlie notes of martial music filled the air; 
the Old French Quarter seemed to have ^yakened to 
a new life and vigor, and from every direction tlie 
people poured down the narrow streets leading to the 
Old Cathedral to show their interest and pride in the 
great centennial. Every element of the community 
was represented in that heterogenous, cosmoi)olitan 
throng : rich and poor, high and low, white and col- 
ored, devout and curious, all pressed eagerly for- 
ward, packing the streets. 

The Cathedral within and Avithout told the story 
of the mile stone it had reached in its glorious history. 
The entire facade presented a i)atriotic display of the 
flags of all nations, hung in beautiful array from the 
Cathedral arch doorway clear across the streets on 
either side of the historic Pontalha buildings. And 
thus decked in patriotic and religious garb, the an- 
cient Cathedral awaited the coming of the distin- 
guished pageant. From the Archbishopric, the Old 
Ursuline Convent, moved a cortege as none has be- 
fore issued from its gray walls. It was like the 
picture of the olden crusades dropped in thelaj) of the 
Nineteenth Century; acolytes and priests in cassock 
and surplice; bishops in royal i>uri)le, with miters 
and golden croziers ; archbishops in ermine and flow- 
ing robes of silk and gold, and the brilliant red of the 
cardinal i)rince, all made up a scene grand, imposing 
and forever memorable in its character and historic 
features. 

As the majestic ])ageant ai)proaclied the great 
Cathedral, the doors flew open and mid the solemn 



- 107 - 

husli of the audience, the organ pealed forth with 
orchestral accompaniment and the great ecclesiastical 
parade entered the church to the swelling' strains of 
the grand march from " Le Prophete". 

The solemn pontifical mass was offered by Arch- 
bishop Janssens himself with a brilliant retinue of 
assistants and in presence of tlie Cardinal, sixteen 
bishops and two archbishops. 

After the Gospel, Father Hage, the eloquent and 
talented Dominican, delivered a French oration so ad- 
mirable and appropriate to this glorious festivity that 
we cannot help giving' it "in extenso" as the most 
befitting- conclusion of this chapter. 

Your rOmineuce, Messeigneurs, My Brethreu — God has placed 
iu the life of a people, as iu the life of each individual, marked 
mile-stoues, solemn monuments, which offer to the thought- 
ful mind food for meditation— the past, with all its strnggles. 
its failures and its victories — the present, with its regrets and 
thanksgivings— the future, with its hopes and fears. That hour 
has sounded iu the religious life of Louisiana. A century of ex- 
istence ; a century of the establishment and extension of this 
church! For all Catholics and Louisianians here is a subject 
worthy not only of the most profound retleotions, but also of 
deepest joy and pardonable pride. And as Catholics and Louis- 
ianians, rejoicing in the ancient glory and grauileur of this 
church, you desire to mark the last moments of this centennial 
liy a magnificent demonstration of faith and piety, by trium- 
phant acclammations and songs of thanksgiving. 

Yes I the hour which marks the close of a century is indeed 
a solemn one, and it is in honor of this hour that the Old 
Cathedral seems to grow young again with the grace and beauty 
of its first years. Her stateliness and grandeur dazzle our eyes, 
yet in this new garb we do not know which to most admire, tlie 
richness or the simplicity. Like tlie bride of which the Apo- 
calypse speaks, she is robed in beauty and grace to celebrate 
worthily the memories of the bridegroom that God has given 
her. In honor of this hour a pious procession of priests and 



158 



laity have tiaversed the streets of this great city, amid the 
cheers of the joy of the people, and under the powerful shield 
of that great safeguard of your nation — freedom and liberty. 
In hue, it is to celebrate this hour that we have all assembled iu 
this temple, and I see aronud me, iu the government which 
they represent, the magistrates who honor and the militia who 
defend it; those whom tlie country counts as most illustrious. 

It is always beautiful 
to see the State respond 
to the call of the Church, 
as it is always beautiful 
to see the Church stretch 
out its hand to the State, 
that each may fulfill its 
destiny. 

But it is towards you, 
Messeigneurs, I tnru, 
who above all direct the 
hearts of this assembly. 
Guardians of the divine 
troops, surrounding 
chieftains of twenty 
bishoprics, who, thottgh 
a number are now de- 
tached from this metro- 
jiulis. have nevertheless 
come to bring to your 
Mother the felicitations 
of her children, to bless 
the bond ■which unites 
you to her and to tell her that she is one, holy and indestructible. 
Your Eminence, this festival today must recall to you the 
most beautiful and glorious memories. Only four years ago 
the see of the inmiortal Bishop Carroll shone with a new 
brightness. The first Catholic centenary of the United States 
attracted the attention of the entire world, and one might say 
on that day the church militant of America ai)peared trium- 
phant. Your Eminence ])resided at that fete, and ottered to 
God our common acts of thanksgiving. 

Aud now, my brethren, it seems to me that to be faithful 
to my mission, I must consider with yon this passing century 




Photo B. de V'illentroy. 

Vkhy Rkv. H. Hage. 



— 159 — 

ami tlie road to it traversed. It will be at the same time a 
recital and a proof; a recital of your combats and triumphs, 
your sufferings and joys, and a proof of the mercy of God, the 
blessings of religion and the vitality of the Church and the 
faith aTul piety of Louisiana. Two memorable dates present 
themselves for our reflection and divide this discourse into two 
parts— 1793-1893. 

The raillery and skepticism of the eighteenth century was 
Bearing its decline. An agitation, amounting almost to a revolt, 
tormen'ted the minds of men, and the day was not far distant 
when the impious doctrines of a furious populace plunged 
France into one of the most bloody catastrophes history has 
ever chronicled. '93 had come, and with it a train of persecu- 
tions, victims and deaths ! 

Strange coincidence, or rather happy disposition of divine 
wisdom, that offered a remedy for the great evils on the other 
side of the world, by sending the first bishop to this particular 
corner. The ideas of the mother country penetrated easily 
into a colony which could not forget its French origin. In 
Louisiana, then, was needed a guardian, an overseer, a bishop, 
and he was found in the person of Monseigneur Luis de Pen- 
alver y Cardenas. And thns the church extending her vigorous 
branches, sent in all directions the most hardy explorers, carry- 
ing with them the light of faith and the blessings of civiliza- 
tion. Quebec at the north, Baltimore on the east, and New 
Orleans on the south! These three names tell at once how the 
Church took definite possession of the American soil. 

Founded in 1718, New Orleans had already completed sixty 
years of its existence when it was marked out as the See of a new 
bishop. Several religious communities had been established; 
the Capuchins and the Jesuits preached the Gospel to the people, 
while the Ursuline Nuns, who arrived in 1727, so intimately 
blended their lives with your own, that to recount their history 
is to recount the history of this city. What a picture it pre- 
sents, this infant colony of France— struggling valiantly for its 
rights and defense, yet gradually learning to love and appre- 
ciate the Spanish domination, to which it, at length, submitted 
faithfully, while Awaiting for Louisiana to pass again into the 
hands of France. This happened, but scarcely had the echo 
gone forth, when Louisiana was transferreil to the United States 
and shortly after aduiitted into the Uniou. Then began for 



— 160 — 

her au era of prosperity-, because it was au era of full aud entire 
liberty. 

Such was the happy portion of the Church in the United 
States ; the privilege of developing under the guidance of its 
poutifs and priests without having their actions shackled by the 
hatred of persecution or the tyranny which destroys. Rejoicing 
in this liberty aud independence, she went bravely on, keeping 
her doctrines intact and her morals pure, attracting towards 
herself loyal aud siucere hearts aud walking ever under the 
guidance of the light of Christ, who governs it, aud in obe- 
dience to the Sovereign Ponfitf. More than eighty-six bishops, 
8000 priests and 6,000,000 of children, form the forces of this 
pacific army of the church of America, and in face of this grand 
battalion, of which the ranks iucrease daily, I bow my head be- 
fore their standard, upon which we nmy write these two words : 
"God and Liberty!" 

Nevertheless this liberty was one day menaced in the his- 
tory of Louisiana. It was on the 8th of January, 1815. That 
date recalls the most glorious combat that you ever sustained ; 
the day on which you maintained your independence. Tbe 
English had ascended your beautiful river and stole upon you 
to take you by surprise, with bayonets in tbeir hands and con- 
quest in their hearts. We see the sight of the advancing hosts 
renewing the intrepidity of the ancient braves, and the faith of 
valiant Christians, as in the middle ages. And while the battle 
was raging in Chalmette, uear here, in the chapel of the Ursu- 
line Nuns the prayers rose heavenward. This battle of the 
power of prayer against the power of the sword has not been 
without example. In the heroic days of the thirteenth century 
a battle raged under the same conditions of the inferiority of 
host against host; there, too, at Muret, in its courage aud in its 
prayer, and Chalmette, like Muret, will tell to all generations 
what man may accomplish when God places in his hands bis 
wisdom and all powerful guidance. Three thousand Americans 
repulsing 14,000 British, saving a city from the horrors of 
conquest and pillage, and retiring with ranks crowned with 
glory and hearts beating proudly and without reproach, left to 
their country the blessings of liberty and to God the honor of 
the victory. That same day the doors of tbe Old Cathedral 
opened before the most generous of these brave spirits -tbe sec- 
ond bishop of New Orleans, Mgr. Dubourg, received the con- 



- 161 — 

queror, who advanced with holy euthusiasm to the middle of 
the sanctuary and offered his grateful thanks and homage to 
the God of battles. That day General Jackson grew greater 
and more illustrious in the eyes of men, because, in the midst of 
his victory, he was humble before God, and when the stranger 
visits your city he leaves this church and looks upon the statue 
which faces it, and, drawing near, he is filled with thoughts 
which recall the only two forces in the world, the courage of 
the great and the prayers of the weak. 

And now shall I bring to your minds other trials which have 
weighed heavily upon your shoulders ; the scourges which 
decimated in a few hours your population, the inundations 
which ravaged your country and caused the most terrible dis- 
tress ? Shall I speak to you of that last civil war, of which the 
painful eft'ects are still sadly echoing today ? You know all this 
and you understand how the Church of Louisiana had her part 
in the sorrows and tears. But it is written that virtue finds its 
perfection in weakness, that trials beget patience, and patience 
salvation, and despite all the obstacles of men and things, be- 
hold this church of a century in age, appears before your A'isiou 
happy in her past progress and confident in her success in the 
future. Yes, progress, for we have every reason to rejoice at the 
flourishing and extensive verifications of the record in this 
year of grace 1893. And above all, my brethren, God has pre- 
served in your hearts the precious gift of faith. Nay, more. He 
has enriched this treasure and made it bear fruit, for His honor 
and glory and for your happiness. 

It is a recognized and acknowledged faith among the ancient 
residents of Louisiana that faith and piety are stronger today 
than ever. The spirit of Voltaire and Rousseau, whose deadly 
poison was in filtered into the minds of the preceding generaticm, 
have disappeared and given place not only to the actual and 
complete practice of religious duties, but also to the deepest 
respect and love for all that is holy and sacred. If there exists 
among some Inkewarmness and forgetfulness, there are among 
all sincerity and a desire to do better. Yes, among all ! for in 
the depths of your soul you guard the convictions which give 
a steady and luminous faith, which augment and prompt the 
most generous charities, and which constitute for you this day 
the most glorious title of children of the faith. I go a step 
further, and I find that this church of Louisiana enjoys the in^ 



— 162 — 

estimable privilege of being honored and loved by hearts which 
were not of its fold, hearts in which it found confidence in its 
wisdom and help in its needs. Thanks for all these means 
which Divine Providence placed at its disposal, enabling it to 
develop and extend in all directions, bringing to the ignorant 
and uncivilized in the wildest regions the name and knowledge 
of the Most High, illuminating their minds with the light of 
faith and their hearts with the fire of divine love. In the first 
centuries of the Church, in proportion as its missionaries pene- 
trated into the bosom of infidel countries and converted the 
inhabitants to the religion of Christ, the authorities of Rome 
placed above these bishops to guide and direct, and the creation 
of an episcopal see was the most powerful proof of the progress 
and conquests of the church. In our day this proof has lost 
none of its ancient force. 

Let us glance around at the first territory that was con- 
fided to the jurisdiction of the first bishop of New Orleans. It 
not only com]>rised all Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and 
Florida but also the immense district extending west from 
the great Mississippi river to the Rocky Mountains. Today, 
twenty-five bishops hold sway in this region, twenty-five great 
cathedrals rise majestically heavenward as branches of that 
church, old yet ever new, radiant with hope, filled with the 
strength of its early years, and growing each day under divine 
guidance, as the hope and consolation and victory of its people. 
And here, also, in New Orleans, my brethren, what signs of 
progress do we not see 1 What has become of the little village 
of 300 souls that was founded by Bienville? What a splendid 
subject could have been reserved for my discourse if it had not 
been given me to speak of the material development of your 
city. 

Is it not evident on all sides, even from a human point of 
view, that you owe to God the great proportion of your present 
glory and prosperity ? But there is another subject to which 
I wish to draw your attention. I have already spoken to you 
of the condition of the parishes, and of the religious community 
which Mgr. de Penalver found established on his arrival in this 
city. 

Cast a glance, now, at this entire diocese, and admire with 
me the flourishing conditions of these visible signs of a Christian 
country. Parishes have multiplied ; more than a hundred and 



— 163 - 

teu throw opeu each Snuday the doors of their temples for the 
worship of the faithful, and subserve the spiritual necessities 
of three huudred thousand Catholics. Religious orders of men 
and women are all represented in your diocese ; the Sons of Saint 
Benedict, the disciples of Saint Alphonsus, the Lazarisis and 
Marists and Fathers of the Holj' Cross, Ursulines and Carmelites, 
Dominicans and Benedictines, Marianites of the Holy Cross, 
the Family of the Immaculate Conception, Ladies of the Sacred 
Heart and Sisteis of Saint Joseph, iu fine, all these good con- 
gregations and many others, administer to every need of the 
people, and find an answer for every sorrow, a remedy for every 
surtering, a consolation and hope in every trial. And what an- 
swer does Louisiana give to the maguiticent work of Catholic 
education — 86 parochial schools and 15 colleges accommodate 
each day more than 12,000 children, and give them not only a 
thorough knowledge of profane science, but also the higher and 
more inii)ortant science of divine truth. 

Look around at the grand orphanages of this State ; their 
magnificent institutions that pick up the poor, parentless chil- 
dren and rear them in love and tenderness with the care and 
solicitude of a true Christian mother ; those Catholic asylums, 
where tutelary walls offer them a home and protection under 
the shadow of the cross until they are strong enough to fight 
their own battles in the great raCe of life. And that home, built 
for the poor and aged and infirmed, that home for the weary 
soul left in second childhood homeless and alone, with eyes 
turned lovingly towards the tomb ; that home whose doors are 
opeu to shelter and protect them, and which ceases not its ten- 
der watchful care till brightening the darkening evening of 
life, till the weary eyes are shut to its sorrows and opeu to the 
brightness of the day. The words of the Saviour are verified to 
the letter: "You have always the poor amongst yon." These 
words are understood iu New Oi'leans, and a holy emulation ani- 
mates religious and laity to present to the all-pervading sor- 
rows and miseries of life the strong and powerful phalanx of 
charity. And to what do we owe these handsome results ? That 
remains for me to tell you. 

To whom, did I say? To yourselves, my brethren. Yes, I 
am happy to have learned and happy to have the privilege of 
saying that among you there live ancient Creole families whose 
virtuous examples and deep respect for Christian traditions have 



— 164 — 

successfully seconded the Church iu all its efforts for the ad- 
vancement of faith and morals and education. Descended from 
French or Spanish ancestors, they have preserved those ideas 
of ri<;ht and justice, chivalrous sentiments and ardent faith, 
and holy spirit of piety which are indelible characteristics of 
their two mothers, the countries separated by the Pyrenees. 

And with you we owe a debt of gratitude to those zealous 
and indefatigable priests and missionnaries who explored this 
country in every direction, grasping souls from the darkness of 
error and ignorance and sin. What trials and labors they un- 
derwent to redeem the soil of souls, more ungrateful and rebel- 
lious than the soil of daily toil for existence, traversed by the 
feet of man. They were received and lived in the midst of 
poverty, and many will recall that one of these heroic men, 
named Pere Antoine, lived near this Cathedral in a miserable 
cabin, from which he directed the hearts of the people in 
the love and fear of God, and the light radiated from that 
lowly hut still shines in Louisiana to-day ; all of which proves 
that the people understood the voice of self-abrogation and 
loved and honored those who practiced it. And about these 
priests and laity of the Church of Louisiana I see, like a speak- 
ing picture, the new bishops and archbishops which it pleases 
God to place above them as pastors. 

In this great church of New Orleans, among the principal 
who occupied its episcopal chair were Mgr. Penalver, whose 
love and charity towards the poor was proverbial ; Mgr. Dii- 
bourg, that man of great merit and letters, whose eloquence 
and wisdom was tempered by the sweetness of the Gospel light ; 
Mgr. Odin, that sainted archbishop and man of duty, who 
united the delicacy of the true gentleman with the simplicitj' of 
the early apostles, and whose long episcopate was marked by 
the most numerous benefactions; Mgr. Perch^, who was the 
personification of kindness, and who could never close either his 
purse or his heart to those who appealed to him ; Mgr. Leray, 
whose prudent and wise administration makes him remembered 
as a wise and worthy prelate, who exemplified in every phase 
of his brilliant career the bishops of the early Gospel ; and lastly 
rises the picture of the reigning archbishop of New Orleans, 
and at once you would call me incapable and ungrateful, my 
brethren, if I did not present to him, in your behalf, the senti- 
ments of esteem, affection and filial veneration which you would 



— 165 — 

offer bim on this beautiful day. Yes, Monseignenr! As pontiff 
and fatber, tbis festival sbonld fill your heart with joy. Your 
children, bishops, priests and faithful, have all gathered about 
you to tell you this diocese of Louisiana constitutes only one 
soul in God and for God. Your works stand around in every 
village and hamlet to testify to the wisdom of your government, 
and the vigorous growth of your apostle. Like Mary singing 
her canticle of praise, you also may intone the canticle of 
thanksgiving. 



MUTANTUR IMPERL\, ECCLESIA DUUAT." 



Ten years after its centennial the Old Saint Louis 
Cathedral assumed again a patriotic garb to witness 
the centenary of the Purchase of Louisiana from 
France by the United States, The same notable dis- 
play of flags was made on the facade of the venerable 
building ; the same bright draperies floated across 
its arched aisles. There was, however, a marked dif- 
ference between these two grandiose festivities ; the 
first marked the celebration of a day which stood for 
the immutability of the Church, the latter marked an 
anniversary which showed the mutability of the 
nations. One spoke of God, the other of man, and 
the significance of the festival was illustrated by the 
following inscription on a beautiful shield whicli was 
hung above the main entrance of the Church : "Mu- 
tantur Imperia, Ecclesia Durat;" "Empires or gov- 
ernments change, but the Church lasts." 

Such a gathering as the one that assembled 
in the Cathedral on this memorable day had seldom 
before been seen within its dim gray walls. It was 



— 166 — 

not only the rich setting- of ])riests nnd acolytes in 
cassocks and surplices, bishops in mantel leta with 
miters and j;ilted croziers, the Arclibishop in cappa 
magna, but also the navy and diplomatic; corps of 
the three illustrious nations under whose domination 
Louisiana had snccessively passed: France, Spain 
and the United States. 

The chief feature of tlie entire ceremony, the 
one that left the deepest impression and aroused the 
greatest admiration, was the magniticent oration that 
Father de la Moriniere delivered after the Gosi)el at 
the High iMass. Himself a Lonisianian and a child 
of the City of the I'urchase, Father de La Moriniere 
could enter into the theme ,as few could ; his dis- 
course, showing the work of the C3hurch in the up- 
building and christianizing of the children of the 
primeval forests and the zeal of the |)ions mission- 
aries who dotted the land of the Purchase with the 
emblem of Christianity from the Gulf to the Great 
Lakes, together with his prayer of thanksgiving, 
was one of the most stirring sermons ever heard in 
the Old Cathedral. Father de la Moriniere spoke as 
follows : 

It is singularly appropriate, aud in strilviug and toucliin.i;- 
liai-niouy with the traditions aud early chronicles of Louisiana 
that the Catholic i hnrch should claim a rijiht royal share in this 
day's rejoicings, shed the lialo of her sacred presence npou this 
gathering of noble men aud noble wonien, aud consecrate by 
the splendor of her ceremonies and the magnificence of her 
ritiial our loyal endeavors to celebrate, as it deserves, the one 
hundredth anniversary of our transferred allegiance from the 
tricolor of France to the Stars aud Stripes of the United States 
of America. For none but the wilfully blind or unaccountably 
ignorant can fail to catch glimpses of her authority, mark her 
activity aud trace her iutineuce on our coast already in the 




Photo Teunisson. 



J^ Memorabuc Pkockssiox. 



— 168 — 

dawn of those ceuturies of colonization which preceded the con- 
summation which we now commemorate. 

It was her palladium raised in hope and confidence over the 
head of the daring explorer that made unflinching his resolve, 
unyielding his nerve, stout his heart, strong his arm and un- 
wavering his step in his irksome march and perilous enterprise. 
It was her ministering care that smoothed his path and softened 
his hardships. It was her voice crying onward and forward 
that urged him on when faltering nature whispered halt and 
rest. It was the light of that divine faith which she flashed 
along his dismal way which scattered the shadows conjured up 
so often by despondency and dispair. It was the lofty and 
supernatural aim that she held before his eager gaze that trans- 
formed his mission into an apostolate. It Avas her hands clasped 
in supplicating prayer that crowned his efforts seemingly un- 
available and ultimate and unlooked-for success. It was her 
selfless devotion which oft shielded him from harm, encom- 
passed him by night and day, through flood and field, the 
trackless waste and stormy sea, like a mother's unspoken bene- 
diction. It was the welcomed consciousness that she would be 
at his side, within his reach, in the person of her minister 
ready to strengthen him if he grew faint, to cheer him if he 
drooped, to shrive him if he fell and to open Heaven to him 
if he died, which gave to many a youth born and bred in luxury, 
basking in the sunshine of comfort and the smiles of fortune, 
courage to leave home and native land, sever the strongest ties 
of blood and friendship, forego the laughter of mirth and the 
gay revels of ancestral halls, in order to brave the baneful 
efl:'ect8 of unwholesome climes, plow the broad bosom of the 
ocean and, in frail bark canoes, the uufriendly surface of 
inland lakes; plod over the Indian trail through summer's 
blistering rays and winter's ice-laden blasts; in a word, to dare 
the deeds and achieve the feats which have rendered famous, 
in the bead-roll of the world's heroes, the names of not a few 
among the early pioneers of our cherished Louisiana. 

But aliis and alack! The jaundiced eye of prejudice has 
not failed to look askance at the motives which prompted the 
monarchies of Spain and France to spread the fold of their flag 
over portions of far-off lands and dispatch armed bands to 
tread the great arteries of our continent. A popular writer did 
not scrujtle to speak of the wild and predatory nature of those 



— 169 — 



expeditious which addetl large possessions to the impoverished 
exchequers of the distant and greedy rulers, and of the heroic 
explorers themselves as an unbridled and unprincipled horde, 
delighting in roving incursions and extravagant exploits, and 
in whose eyes no gain was so glorious as the cavalgada of spoils 
and captives driven in triumph from a plundered province, 

while religion herself was 
branded as lending her aid 
to satisfy these ravaging pro- 
pensities. We are asked to 
believe that it was the spirit 
of Spanish chilvalry, which, 
bred np to daring adventure 
and heroic achievements, 
and ill-brooking the tranquil 
and regular pursuits of com- 
mon life, panted for new 
fields of romantic emprise, 
that sent the Castilian cav- 
alier to the caravel of the dis- 
coverer, and not this longing 
to do yeoman's service in the 
cause of God and the propa- 
gation of the faith. On the 
other hand, an unsuspected 
author has boldly declared 
that it would not be giving a fair view of the great object pro- 
posed by the Spanish sovereigns in their schemes of discovery to 
omit one which was paramount to all the rest. And what is 
that ? The spreading of Christianity and the conversion and 
civilization of a simple people. This statement of Prescotr, in a 
well-known work, is substantiated by facts than which, as we 
are aware, nothing is more stubborn. In a letter indited as 
far back as 1521, Ponce de Leon, of Florida fame, informs his 
august patron and master that he returns to that island if it be 
God's will to settle it, " that the name of Christ may be praised 
there and Your Majesty served with the fruit that land pro- 
duce." In no other vein is couched the King's patent to Lucas 
Vasquez de Ayllon in 1,523, two years after: "Our primal 
intent in the discovery of new lauds is that the natives thereof 
be brought to the truth of our holy Catholic faith, become 




Photo C. M. C. 
Rev. E. de la Mohinikre. 



— 170 — 

Christians and be saved ; and this is the chief motive you are 
to hold ill this affair, and to this end it is proper that religious 
persons shonld acconipaiiy yon." It is the chief condition of the 
King's grant to Hernando de Soto in 1538, " that he slioiild carry 
and bear with him the religions and priests who shall be ap- 
pointed by us for the instruction of the natives of that province 
in onr holy Catholic faith." 

Small wonder, then, that side by side with tlint noble 
knight and trne Christian whose mortal remains rest in peace 
within that oaken trnnk scooped out by his companions, and by 
them sunk many fathoms deep in the bed of the Mississippi; 
small wonder that side by side with Hernando De Soto, on the 
unknown and hitherto unexplored soil of Lonisiana, stand 
the minister of Christ and tlie anointed representative of the 
Chnrch. The hood and the cowl and the robe of brown or gray 
mingle their sombre hne with the refulgent brightness that 
shoots and glances from the bnrnished armors and polished 
weapons of the sons of Spain. Throngh the long vistas of 
slender pines and stately oaks the cross is held aloft above the 
sweeping pageantry of iron heels and gnilded spnrs. The 
pennant of Castile is seen fluttering low before the emblem of 
salvation. A trumpet signal, and the plnmed crested warriors 
give willing knee to the adorable host of the ciicharistic 
sacritice offered by the otbciating priest at an improvised altar, 
reared beneath the swaying bonghs of that vast sylvan solitude. 

And if we pass the Spanish hidalgo to the French chevalier, 
everywhere the scene is the same. From the Gulf of Mexico 
to the lakes of Canada and the headwaters of the St. Lawrence,* 
religion and chivalry, gowned priest and belted knight, march- 
ing hand in hand to the conquest, civilization and evangeliza- 
tion of new worlds. The merry ringing, for a whole day, of 
the Qnebec. in 1675, the soulful chanting of the " Te Denm" by 
the bishop, the clergy and entire population because the Jesuit 
Marquette had discovered the mouth of the giant river which 
fertilizes these shores, besides telling us how our European 
fathers deemed it their tirst duty to give thanks to the divine 
Arbiter of human destiny for whatever success attended their 
perilous efforts in the toils and hardships of exploration, voice 
in language more impressive and more grandly elo([nent than 
human speech the most gifted can ever hope to command, the 
deep concern of the Catholic Church in every befalling of the 




Right Rkv. Mgr. J. M. Laval. 



— 172 — 

nasceut colony, nnfl ilie close iiiterweavinij of their coniiTion 
interests. In tones no less, nay still more striking, is the same 
truth proclaimed by the exultant strains of that mighty chorus 
of praise to the Most High, which, on the night of January, 
1682, leaped to the starlit sky from the throats of noble and 
plebeian, priest and soldier, shook the leafy walls of nature's 
temple, and started the slumbering echoes of a Louisiana wilder- 
ness when ]>'obert Cavelier de la Salle, in the name of the most 
puissant, most invincible and victorious Prince, Louis the Great. 
King of France, unfurled the white banner to the breeze, and 
nailed to the column he had planted the royal escutcheon. You 
cannot sunnuon in fancy the towering tigure of Iberville, the 
fearless Commauderof the Pelican ; of Bienville, his distinguished 
and valorous brother, to whom our city of New Orleans owes its 
existence; of Sauvolle, the most accomplished of that noble 
trio of brothers, without resting your mind's eye upon the 
saintly tigures of those priests of Jesus Christ, Moutigny and 
Davion, and others of their cloth, who shared the varied for- 
tunes of those matchless leaders, and furnished by their labors, 
in behalf of the untutored savage of the wilds, materials for 
the most thrilling narrative. 

"I tell you this morning, with all the eamiestness I may 
|»ossess, that you might as well try to shear the sun of his beams, 
to strip the moon other silver mantle, to pluck by the roots you 
Rocky Mountains, to check the How or drain the basin of the 
Mississippi Kiver, as to sever the tie which binds the Catholic 
Church to Louisiana from the very moment when the settler's 
axe cleared her tangled forests, and the navigator's sail opened 
to the trafdc of the world her countless watercourses. 1 tell you 
that if we, whose infancy was cradled on her soil, Avhose youth 
was reared and nurtured in her schools, whose maturer years 
rii)eued in the day of her Statehood, amid the marvels of her 
development, if we should ever, may God forbid, foiget the 
honor and the fidelity and the obedience we owe to the Catholic 
Church, the very stones of our streets, the vary sands of our 
shores, the very blades of grass on our remaining i)r.nries would 
find tongues to reproach us with our recreancy and ingratitude, 
while the bones of our fathers that molder in our cemeteries 
beneath the shadow of the cross would rattle with indignation 
in their graves at the conduct of their traitor sous. Aye, 
traitors! Fonremember, Louisianians of the twentieth century. 



— 173 — 

reiiieniber that the blood of your sires and the blood of tlio 
Catholic Church may be said to have mingled their rnddy streams 
when in the eighteenth century the French missionaries and 
their flock were by the slaughtering hands of the Natcliez tribes 
made to till a common grave. 

But, although the wise Governor of all things has hidden 
the future from the ken of our feeble understanding, and our 
clearest conceptiousof what may happen are involved in doubt, 
yet, judging of things to come by their predecessors, it may not 
be rash to prophesy that the calamitous day will never be 
on record against us. For, from the gleamings of history, I 
seem to witness the glad and enthusiastic welcome given in 
1699 to their first resident chaj>lain by the first French settle- 
ment in Louisiana at that little post built by Iberville at 
Biloxi. Uncontrollable emotion convulsed the frames of strong 
men and bathed with tears of joy and gratefulness the cheeks 
of frail women when they realized that there now was in their 
midst one who would soothe their sorrows, share their trials, a 
priest who would pardon their sins, baptize their children, join 
them in Christian wedlock, anoint them in the last illness with 
the sacred oils, and whisper the blessings of the Church over 
their freshly dug graves. 

And when, in 1718, at the command of that peerless organ- 
izer, Bienville, whoso searching glance had marked the glorious 
possibilities and foreseen the future greatness of our emporium, 
fifty gigantic sous of the forest were laid low to make room for 
the foundation of New Orleans, what is it that led to the pro- 
jected city the dwellers of the Mississippi Valley ? The facilities 
for import and export, doubtless, which the plan afforded, but 
chiefly, I believe, the eager wish of their Catholic hearts to 
build their rough homesteads within the shadow of those sanc- 
tuaries which they knew must, at no distant period, dot 
that strii> of promised land. They were not doomed to disap- 
pointment. The wooden crosses erected in the fields and public 
thoroughfares and roads soon yielded space for the construction 
of churches and chapels, and the year 1723 saw on the street 
named Chartres, after the ducal sou of the French regent, and 
within stone's throw of the fronting " Place d'Armes," a wooden 
cross which, soon swept away by the breath of the hurricane, 
was replaced in 1725 by' a more elaborate structure, from whose 
ashes the munificent boxinty of that philanthropic prince, Don 



— 174 — 

Andres Aliiioiiester y Koxns, made to .sprinii;', in 17^3. that lioa.st 
and pride of onr city, tiiar, faithful depository of onr tradition, 
that majestic witness of all the nieniorable events of onr liistory. 
that venerable theatre of the most glowinj-- scene in our civil 
and relii^ions annals, the Saint Lonis Cathedral, within whose 
storied walls we are now assembled, nuder the leadership of the 
most distinj^nished prelate Avho has ever j^raced its archiepis- 
copal throne, to invoke the divine blessinj;- upon onr Sonthland. 

But iu 1725 the Cathedral bells, now "nestling in their lofty 
steeples," had not snnjj the i)ieans of victory to the Christian 
colonists. Thronoh winds and Hoods, ])estilence and famine, tire 
and conutless cahimitons visitations, the Chnrch was striving 
to get a snrer footing and plant her standard more tirnily in the 
rising city of Hienvilie. She Avas bnsy recruiting her ranks from 
foreign semiuaries to cope with the increasing needs of a grow- 
ing population. She husbanded jealously all her resources, 
multiplied her endeavors to reach by her ministrations the 
humblest of Christ's flock, and especially the waifs and strays 
of life that were wandering far from her protecting arms. 'I'lie 
education of young girls was sorely neglecte<l. The mother 
country was appealed to, and across the billowy main she 
reached out her helping hand to her imploring children. Con- 
formably to a contract with the West India Company, eight 
valiant Ursuliue Nuns, whose number was soon to increase to 
nineteen, lauded at New OiTeans on the 6th of August, 1727, to 
begin the work of education and charity which has been con- 
tinued under five dift'erent national flags iu its existence of 
more than a century and a half, and has trained in their 
academies those accom])lished daughters of the South, whose 
Christian graces are an honor to their country as well as to 
their skillful and devoted teachers. A rare sight and a wA- 
comed cue mnst that processiou have been which escorted the 
daughters of Saint llrsulato their newly finished convent, on 
Ursuliue street, which is the oldest building in the city and 
the ohlest conventual structure within the limits of our Re- 
public. 

A Capuchin father, with two Jesuits as his assistants, 
bearing the blessed sacrament under a canopy; the veiled nuns, 
in choir mantles, following; the Governor and his start" imme- 
diately after; then the citizens, preceding the military force 
of the colony, whose drums and instruments blended their 




Photo B. Moore. 

His Excellknce Most Rev. Louis P. Chapellk. 



— 176 — 

sounds with the leligious chants as they moved along. A rare 
and soul-lifting sight, that to which, however, I would not 
have called your attention were it not for the treasured lesson 
which it teaches : The profound and public homage paid by 
the civil power to the Church and her ministers and to the 
members of our Catholic sisterhood. Neither would I allude to 
the sous of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, Avho, together with the sons 
of Saint Francis, ministered to the spiritual wants of the 
infant city, were it not to say, with laudable pride, that 
their work in your midst today for the training of the young 
and the service of the altar is instinct, with the same un- 
Belfish, self-sacrificing and patriotic love for Louisiana as that 
which quickened the pulses and fired the souls of their pioneer 
brothers in 1762. At that period the tread of events was about 
to turn and aft'airs were fast speeding to a crisis. For reasons 
detailed by historians the mother-milk could no longer in suf- 
ficient draughts reach the lips of the nursling, and Louis XV 
was advised to give it into hands better able to provide it with 
the necessary nourishment. Under seeming cover of affection 
and friendship for his '' Cousin of Spain," but in reality under 
pressure of circumstances, he ceded " to him and his successors 
all the-couutry known under the name of Louisiana," and thus 
the much-enduring population, which had overcome so many 
perils under the flag of France, was coldly delivered over to the 
yoke of foreign masters. 

It is not hard to imagine the conflicting emotions aroused 
in the breasts of our forefathers by the unexpected news which 
reached New Orleans in 1764. They loved their Fieuch descent 
and dependency. They were proud of their language, and 
attached to their laws, manners, customs, habits and govern- 
ment. The treaty of Fontainebleau had been secret. Neither 
had their wishes been consulted nor their consent solicited, so 
they chafed under a sense of wrong sure to break out into re- 
prisals at which, while we deplore them, we can in no way 
marvel. I glide over that touching incident in which on bended 
knees the aged and feeble Bienville, like a father suing for the 
life of his child, vainly pleaded with France not to strip herself 
by one stroke of the pen of those boundless possessions which 
she had acquired at the cost of so much heroic blood and so much 
treasure, and which extended in one proud, uninterrupted line 
from the mouth of the St. Lawrence to that of the Missis8ii)pi. 



— 177 — 

I glide over that dark episode, the insurrectiou of 1768, which 
closed with the public execution of the chief abettors, to bid 
you view iu spirit the sceue enacted ou this very square, wheu, 
amid the pealiug of bells and the roaring of cannon from the 
Spanish fleet, and the discharge of guns by the laud troops, and 
the waving of banners, and the beating of drums, and the 
clanging of trumpets, General O'Reilly took possession of this 
colony in the name of his Catholic Majesty, and the flag of 
France sank from the head of the mast where it waved, and 
was replaced by that of Spain. When on that day both Gov- 
ernors and their retinues were received by the clergy in this 
Cathedral, then the Chinch of Saint Louis, where a solemn "Te 
Deum" was sung, be pleased to observe that it was again the 
Church who poured oil over the troubled waters by pleatling to 
the new administration the loyal submission of her children ; a 
submission which ripened to ardent love and devotion during 
the thirty-three years in which the flag of Spain floated over 
our city and country. 

Rat of those colonial days, whose memory shall only vanish 
from our midst wheu the last of those relics and monuments 
which breathe their spirit and speak of their quaint and ro- 
mantic grandeur shall have been leveled with the dnst by the 
unsparing hand of time; to those days the gratitude of our 
ancestors bade a tender, if not a wholly regretful, farewell 
when, iu 1803, Louisiana found herself no longer a portion of 
the Spanish monarchj', nor yet of the French Republic, 'to 
which she was receded for a brief span, but part and parcel of 
the iireat American Republic. 

Mine is not the task on this Centennial Day to say how the 
])nrcliaseof the Louisiana Territory is, next to the Declaration of 
Independence and the formation of the Constitution which 
niailo US a uation, the greatest event in American history ; how, 
nearly doubling the area of the United States by adding ter- 
ritoiy equal to the combined area of Great Britain, Germany, 
France, Spain, Portugal and Italy, for the sum of $15,000,000, 
which the Tit.in Bonaparte deemed a fair price, it was the 
greatest real estate speculation which the world has ever seen ; 
how it was the" most noteworthy political move, averting prob- 
able fierce and long conflicts, waste of life, destruction of prop- 
erty and retardation of progress, I leave those facts to the 
statesman, the fin.incier and the diplomat. Mine is not even 



— 178- 

the task to unfold the giant .strides made in the conrse of a 
century by the intellectual civilization of which the b:ir, the 
medical profession, the literary and scieutitic circles, nay every 
class, every interest, every fireside, gives unquestionable tokens. 
I turn to thoughts more in accord with my theme. I trace the 
luminous finger of God iu the progress of his Church in Louis- 
iana tlirough these hundred years which divide us from the 
cousunimatiou of that great purchase. To you. Catholics, I say, 
look around you, aud while you marvel at the contrast between 
now and then; while you marvel at the growth and develop- 
ment of your religion in the city of New Orleans, let your hearts 
brim over with gratefulness. Let your lips hymn fo.'th a song 
of ])raise " For the things which the right hand of the Almighty 
hadth done in Siou." 

Count your numbers aud be glad that from a mere handful 
it has swollen to 37-5 000 in this Archdiocese. The roll of the 
Catholic clergy Avhich counted twenty-six in town and country, 
boasts of more than 220 faithful shepherds tending the flock of 
Jesus Christ in those 199 churches sprung from the soil under 
the magic wand of charity and zeal. Twe:ity-two thousand and 
four hundred and sixty-three is the number of young people 
under Catholic care. Five colleges and academies for boys and 
seventeen for young ladies, train your sons aud daughters iu the 
higher grades of study. Orphan asylums aud hospitals and 
homes for the aged poor shelter the weak and the sick and the 
destitute. A hundred years ! Aud how the little grain of mus- 
tard seed has sprouted up and branched forth into the sheltering, 
Avidcspreadiug tree! A hundred years! If from their seats on 
high, Heaven's dwellers are, as we believe, permitted a view of 
human concerns, the sight of those devout worshipers, men, 
women and children, who throng our altar rail on Sundays and 
festivals, must fill the blessed soul of the Bishop Penalver with 
far more different feelings than those which prompted these 
words to Bishop Carroll: "Not more than a quarter of the 
population of the town ever hear mass. A hundred years and 
the Catholic Church, that great creation of God's power stands 
iu this laud in the pride of place. She energized through ten 
thousand instruments of power and influence. She wears her 
honors thick upon her venerable brows, enthronged among ns in 
a See which, in this llepixblic, is second only to that of Balti- 
more." 



— 179 — 

Aud here, a vision of teu mitred beads passes before me. 
Tbeir glance sweeps in ghiduess tbrougb tbis vast assembbige. 
Representatives of France and Spain, and of America, Peiialver, 
Dubonrg, Rosati, Neckere, Blanc, Odin, Percbe, Leray, Jausseus, 
welcome you to tbis Catbedral, f com wbose bell-towers rang ont 
the first joyous peals tbat, on tbe twentieth day of December, 
1803, welcomed tbe American flag waving within sight of its 
portals in its fronting 8(|Uiire. Catholics of New Orleans, yonr 
departed Fathers in God salute yon, while with uplifted finger 
I bey point in pride to their pontific successor, and bid you 
mingle your voices in a concert of praise to our Lord Jt-siis Christ 
Avho has vonclisafed to bestow a priceless gift upon the Church 
of New Orleans in the person of bis Excellency Most Reverend 
Archbishop Chapelle. Your P^xcellency, your learning and 
prudence, equalle<l only by your piety and zeal, have achieved 
a success foreseen by our lamented Holy Father, Leon XIII, 
when he chose you, among all your empurpled peers, for one of 
the most difficult missions in the records of ecclesiastical diplo- 
macy. The fame which your Excellency has won on these 
foreign fields of apostolic delegation, beside shedding on tbe 
history of tbis archdiocese a lustre which will forever emblazon 
its pages, it is to your devoted children an earnest that in your 
saintly aud skilful hands the banner of Christ is marching to 
fresh victories and fresh conquests in the opening day of this 
new century of the Louisiana Purchase. Yet, while giving 
thanks, we cannot wholly forget that tbe snn of our prosperity 
was not unclouded by the shadows of disaster. The Ruler of the 
Universe, who in the language of tbe Psalmist, " Exalteth the 
Nations," is sometimes pleased, for reasons known only to His 
inscrutable providence, to test them in crucible trials. Louis- 
iana proved no exce[)tion to that rule. Tbe rods of affliction 
which threatened to scourge the shoulders of our forefathers 
were stayed in their fall by the appointed arm of that great 
soldier, Jackson, who on the memorable twenty-third day of 
January, 1815. crowned in this very temple with a laurel wreath 
from tbe hands of Abb6 Dubourg, offered public homage to the 
God of armies for the vi(!tory which had perched upon bis 
standard, and had freed New Orleans from British invasion. 
But there was no appointed arm to drive back tbe rushing tide 
of that other war which raged aud roared during four long 
years of alternate joy aud grief, hopes and fears, reverses and 



— 180 — 

successes, exultation aud dispair; during four long years wliicli 
like a deep red trail of our best Sontheru blood, Stretched from 
Sumter to Appomattox. Yet: 

O Gracious God! not gaiuless is the loss! 

A glorious sunbeam glides thy sternest frown. 

For the curtain has fallen long ago on those mournful scenes 
of carnage, and thy hand has beautified aud comforted and 
healed, until there is nothing left of those calamitous days but 
graves and garlands, and monuments, and veterans, aud pre- 
cious memories. And we still give thanks. For we have been 
built into a sturdier race by the example and the memory of 
those of our fathers and brothers who were the bravest men 
that ever girt sword or shouldered musket; the most knightly 
warriors that cannon-sigual or trumpet-flourished ever sum- 
moned to bloody fields ; men whose spirits never faltered, whose 
hearts never quailed, whose courage never wavered ; whose 
resolve never failed through four bitter years of recurring 
failure ; aud whose self-sacrifice, self-denial and indomitable 
ardor have no parallel in the annals of any nation. 

We still give thanks, for in brotherly love we now clasp 
each other's hands above the dark chasm of an unfortunate 
past. We owe legal allegiance to a united country. The same 
flag sweeps in mighty over our heads, and we do common 
homage to its folds which conomand respect for the American 
name on sea and land. 

In a moment, the voice of pontiff, priests and people will 
rise to the throne of grace in humble acknowledgment of favors 
received, and in fervent pleading for new blessings. When the 
strains of that solemn " Te Deum " shall have died along the 
vaults of this Cathedral, ou the very spot where it floated high 
for the first time, one hundred years ago, you will again raise 
that flag. Let its voice be heard. Let it be heard beyond the 
limits of this city, beyond the limits of this territory. Let it 
be wafted to where the nation sits in council to tell this one, 
indivisible, imperishable Republic that among all the stars that 
gem its diadem of States none shines more brightly, none more 
steadily, none more faithfully, none more loyally than that of 
Louisiana, purchased by Thomas Jefferson from Napoleon Bona- 
parte, in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and 
three. 



- 181 - 

One hundred and fifteen years have elapsed since 
the Saint Louis Cathedral was solemnly dedicated 
by Don Patricio Walsh, Foreign Vicar for the Bishop 
of Havana, — and still she stands in our midst, majes- 
tically towering the very heart of this City. The 
visitor looking- upon her is at once impressed with 
her age and dignity, and seeks to wrest from her the 
history of bygone days. She is the ancestor of all 
the churches of the entire Louisiana Purchase. Un- 
der her beneficent shadow four and five generations 
have grown to manhood. 

A few feet from her portico, the soldiers both 
of France and Spain unfurled their standards, and 
General Jackson crossed her threshold with the lau- 
rels of victory still fresh on his brow. 

Her vaulted arches from time to time re-echoed 
the solemn strains of the " Te Deum," and the plain- 
tive tones of the " Miserere." 

From her pulpit, men gifted with soul stirring 
eloquence attracted the elite of a society that knew 
better days. 

Beneath the cold flagstones of her sanctuary re- 
pose many a grand sire of the past generations. 

The majestic Old Cathedral remains a mute wit- 
ness of the departed glory of men and events. She 
is the immortal landmark among the many brilliant 
but short-lived monuments that recall the history of 
Louisiana, and her centennial existence impresses far 
more than words those who know how sweet it is to 
weave into their lives the golden threads of the past. 

The End. 



NOV 6 l^OB 



IN AND AROUND 



THE Old 





Haiid-WroiKjht Solid Silver Plate Donated to J. B. Labattit 

by Fiif/ht Rev. FeiiaJver y Cardenas, First Bishop 

of New Orleans — 7793-lSOI. 



LfcFe '09 



